Nascence
by PetitDejeuner
Summary: Nascence, Sakura said, means beginning. A beginning of war, pain, betrayal. A beginning of a year, love, life. The beginning of everything in the world, Neji... everything good and bad and in between. The beginning of me and you. Of everything. [NejiSaku]
1. Dropping Petals

**Nascence**

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_I: Dropping Petals_

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"It's a harsh world we live in, Sakura, and there's no escaping it."

Clear, deep jade eyes glanced up in concern from their work as the Godaime Hokage of Konoha sipped a cup of tea, her hazel orbs darting over a particularly troubling paper. "Tsunade-shishou? What d'you mean by that?"

The blonde woman bit her red-painted lips, a rare gesture of anxiety, as she set the paper down with a smooth _flick_ sound, crimson nails tapping rather dully on the wood of her desk. "Nothing. I'm tired, that's all."

Haruno Sakura brushed a strand of rosy-pink hair out of her eyes before turning fully around to face her mentor, leaning against her own, smaller desk, installed a couple years ago when she had left Tsunade's tutorship and became her official assistant, a kunoichi powerful enough to equal the Hokage. A moment of pride that had echoed in her cheerful voice for months afterwards. But when she spoke this time, her voice was carefully coated in quiet alarm at the busty woman's morbid words. "You've been reading a lot of those papers," she said in a soft voice, "and I know how much you hate them. You should take a break."

"Nonsense, Sakura. You're my assistant, not my mother. I'm the Hokage, and these papers must be read only by me. Get back to work on that mission report." All business once again, Tsunade waved her hand in a show of airiness at the only kunoichi of the Haruno clan, picking up the thick pile of stapled paper once again and setting back into it with a sigh.

Frowning, Sakura did as asked, sliding her lithe, muscled body into her red chair without a word of protest. But beneath her large forehead, her brain worked avidly. She had never thought of her teacher as an elderly lady, really-- that anti-aging jutsu, after all, worked wonders on Tsunade's still-thirty-five appearance. But for the first time, Sakura was struck with a blinding, terrifying realization: Tsunade was getting _old_. She was one of the two Legendary Three Sannin still alive, and that meant that she was most likely around seventy-or-so years old. That was a long lifespan for a shinobi, especially one whose Creation: Rebirth jutsu used up a little bit of life's energy every time it was used.

Tsunade's face was becoming creased with more than just lines of laughter; her beautiful, thick blonde hair was streaked with lightest gray and thinning just a bit at the hairline. Her reflexes, also, were not what they had once been-- yesterday, Sakura had been able to land a kick in a rather obvious spot even Naruto, one of the clumsiest ninja, would have been capable to leap away from. And… what was this?

"Shishou!" Sakura's voice held extreme shock as she stood up, glancing into the older woman's small cup. The liquid inside was a misty green, not the usual transparency it always held. "You're not drinking sake! This is green tea!"

Tsunade snapped the cup from under Sakura's nose, taking a huffy gulp and setting it down hard, sloshing the remainder over her desk and nearly cracking the cup. "So, what? Shizune's finally convinced me to drink a little less. I'm still on grouch-mode from withdrawal, so if you'll only get back to your work, Sakura, I'll try not to blow up on you."

"I'm finished," Sakura interrupted, slapping the crisp papers down on her former tutor's desk, "but that doesn't answer my question."

"I don't recall you asking one," Tsunade retorted, never missing a beat as she grabbed the paper-clipped pages and slid them into a folder, tucking them safely into a locked drawer.

"So I'll ask it now," Sakura replied determinedly. "What's wrong with you?"

"It's nothing."

"Tsunade-shishou, it's _something_," the pink-haired eighteen-year-old persisted voice stern, slamming her fist on the desk, "and I think you should tell me what. First you scare me out of my skin with that morbid statement, all doom and gloom and 'it's a harsh world', then you suddenly decide to actually _listen_ to Shizune? You never listen to her! Something _must_ be wrong!"

For a long moment, Sakura thought Tsunade was going to hit her. But the Godaime stood slowly, stretching and popping her back with the expertise of a medic-nin. "Sakura," she answered, taking her time, "I am getting old."

Even though she had thought this only moments before, Sakura was so shocked at the words actually coming from her sensei's mouth that she nearly fell back. "What?"

"I'm sure you've noticed. My jutsu is not what it was. I no longer have the amazing stores of chakra I used to. My reflexes are down, I'm beginning to look more my age." She shook her head, long pigtails barely moving from their spots on each breast. "I've shortened my lifespan considerably by using the Creation: Rebirth, and teaching a firebrand like you hasn't helped much, either." She smiled at her student wryly, walking away from the cluttered desks and to the giant glass windows, looking over the broad, cheery expanse of her Hidden Village. "It's about time for me to think of a successor, and, frankly, the whole subject of me getting old is quite frightening. Imagine: me, Godaime Hokage, a Legendary Sannin, the Slug Queen. I'm afraid of getting a few gray hairs."

Sakura chuckled dryly with her, but she knew without even searching her mind that Tsunade was troubled by more than 'a few gray hairs'.

"But," the blonde woman continued, "I haven't failed. The Three Sannin have all been reborn in you, Naruto, and the Uchiha disaster. You have surpassed me. I've kept this village safe and prosperous through all manners of enemies and surprises. I have a few ideas for a successor." Tsunade turned back to Sakura, her hands clasped behind her. "However, there are some troubling reports from Gaara that have left me at a loss on what to do. I'm worried."

"Tsunade-shishou, you know I'll help in any way I can," Sakura supplied timidly, rather upset at the turn the conversation had taken. Her shishou, her tutor… talking about dying? Leaving a successor? Where was the powerful, ambitious woman she saw every day before this one?

"Then you can help me share the burden." Tsunade handed her a small scroll directly from Suna, recognizable by the kind of paper they used. Sakura unrolled it and recognized at once the redheaded Kazekage's handwriting, all hurried strokes and irritated jabs.

Sakura read through it once, then twice, and then finally three times, eyes widening a bit after each one.

_Konoha Hokage, Tsunade--_

_I realize that this is a very impromptu notice on my part, but I feel I must warn you of some dangers that may concern you and your village-- namely, the shinobi Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura, both, I believe, ANBU jounin, and both, I believe with most confidence, close to you. This may very well be a personal matter to both of us, as I share a connection with these two as well-- it is with a heavy heart I report this to you._

_I was called out the other day when Temari, my elder sister, found two of our chuunin, reported missing, dead by the outskirts of Suna. One, the male, had six lines carved in his face, his hair dyed blonde, and with several rather vicious sword-slashes through the heart; and the other, a female, pink-dyed hair and carved-out genitals; I am afraid this is a rather ghastly interpretation of Naruto and Sakura-san, portrayed as a warning in the worst way._

_Attached to the female was an old picture of you, most likely torn from a bingo book, with a rather crude drawing of a knife above the head. Again, a rather disturbing warning._

_I am not sure who these horrible messages came from (we are investigating as I write this) and why, but I felt you must know of these atrocities at once. I advise you as an ally and as a companion to the two younger shinobi to put them on their guard (maybe convince some of their ANBU Black Ops friends to have a careful eye on them), and to be most careful with whom you correspond._

_We will update you immediately if anything else comes up-_

_Please respond-_

_Suna Kazekage, Gaara_

It was an age-old rule: _shinobi do not display emotion._ And yet Sakura felt her strong wall of resolve crumbling ever so slightly at the top. "My goodness," she whispered in an exhale, biting her bottom lip rather savagely-- so much, in fact, that she tasted the coppery tang of blood in her mouth soon after. "Who'd do something like this? It's… it's… it's barbaric."

"To put it lightly," Tsunade agreed, taking the scroll from her former student's hands. "The problem is: what to do about it? A sick joke or not, two chuunin were murdered. This makes the criminal or group of criminals chuunin-level or higher, most likely the latter, with no remorse and a strong enough stomach to cut out a female ninja's genitals… they no doubt assaulted her, too, if they're the caliber I'm making them out to be." For a moment, the Hokage seemed lost in thought, until she turned with a snap to face Sakura. "I want you to be extra careful, Sakura. Don't take this as a drill."

Sakura was aghast. "I'd never, Tsunade-shishou! Two innocents were murdered… I mean, this is a serious case."

The blonde woman nodded, sighing in thought. "Sakura, may I ask you your advice?"

The Haruno girl was completely taken aback. To have the Hokage ask her advice? _What a changed person she is today._ "Of course… although I can't promise it'll be good."

"I'm sure it will be the best you can offer," Tsunade said warmly, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Now, I have a question for you: who do you think would be best as the next Hokage?"

"What?"

Catching sight of Sakura's shocked expression, Tsunade chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm not liable to keel over just yet. But I'd like to know your opinion. You know practically everyone in the village-- you're more popular than you'd realize. What shinobi would you list as possible candidates as Rokudaime?"

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said automatically, a small smile spreading over her features. "Most definitely Kakashi-sensei. And, you know, I'd say Asuma-sensei, as well, if only…"

"It's in the past now," Tsunade interrupted softly. "Keep going."

"Hmm. Kurenai-sensei and Gai-sensei are wonderful, but I'm not sure if they'd be quite Hokage-level material. Plus, the image of Gai-sensei ruling Konoha is a bit frightening." They both shared a nervous laugh, trying to lighten the mood. "Shizune… she's too nervous. Jiraiya's a great candidate, but I don't think he'd want it. And most of the other jounin wouldn't do the job quite as well as it should be done, I think, except maybe Neji-san or Yamato-senpai. And…" But Sakura broke off, flustered, and would not continue; her hand was at her mouth, as if trying to hold back what she obviously wanted desperately to say.

"And?" her mentor prompted.

"Naruto," Sakura blurted, a grin quickly catching fire on her face. "I know it's ridiculous… I mean, he's only nineteen, way too young to become a Hokage… but Tsunade-sama, he's Kage-level material, and it's been his dream since he was small, very small. Before I'd even met him, probably. It would fulfill his lifetime dream."

Tsunade smiled very small, as if trying to keep her cheer from showing. "Yes," she said, inclining her head in agreement, "I know. But he is, as you said, very young. Too young, most would think, to rule Konoha."

"Maybe young and headstrong, yeah," Sakura said quietly, "but he's got the spirit of any Hokage, don't you think?"

"Yes, very much so. Sakura?"

"Yes, Tsunade-shishou?"

"You never mentioned yourself."

Sakura was clearly shocked; she backed into her desk, almost falling over. Collecting herself as best she could, the pink-haired woman stood quickly, blushing and stuttering like Hyuuga Hinata. "Why would I mention myself, shishou? I'm hardly Kage-level at all!"

Tsunade laughed, a loud and boisterous laugh that slipped a bit of ease into Sakura's heart. This was the Tsunade she remembered. "Goodness, Sakura! You, not Kage-level? You've _surpassed_ me. Doesn't that make you even better than a Kage?"

Sakura mumbled incoherently. "I… I'm not nearly at the level Naruto is!" she protested.

The Godaime laughed some more and led the younger woman from the room, the two of them setting down the staircase together. "You've mastered summoning slugs and minor creatures; you've killed an Akatsuki member; you've developed a couple of your own jutsu; you have better chakra control than even I do now; your medical jutsu is superb, the best I've ever seen; your genjutsu is at Kurenai's level, or even beyond. You're a better kunoichi than I ever was at your age, there's no doubt to it. You'd be a perfect candidate."

"I'd rather not, Tsunade-shishou," Sakura protested softly, a light blush skirting her cheeks from the high praise.

As they approached the glass doors leading outside, Tsunade frowned lightly. "Why not? Being Hokage is an honor very few ever receive."

"I would rather lose all my honor," Sakura said gravely, "than deny Naruto the chance at Hokage."

Tsunade stopped short, staring at her. "Why's that?"

Sakura bit her lip again, sharp pain echoing through her skull. She quickly let go and started to speak, haltingly, choosing her words. "Naruto's my… well, he's my best friend. Maybe even more so than Ino. And… well… life is short as a shinobi, especially, I'd think, as a jinchuuriki, with the Akatsuki forever hunting you. You never know which mission will be your last. And me… well, I can live with not being Hokage. It's not my life's dream. But it _is_ Naruto's, since almost forever. And I can't be the one to take it away from him… it's too cruel." She turned to her once-teacher, sticking out her tongue in a spectacular display of immaturity. "And besides, after seeing you age so much, I'm not sure I'd want the job, anyway."

"Why, you little-!" As Sakura ran off, laughing and calling that she had more important things to do than talk to grumpy, suicidal old ladies, Tsunade had to fight down a smile and paste the proper mask of anger and irritation to keep it from spreading over her face.

_The next generation, indeed_.

---

Sakura downed the remnants of her glass in one fell swoop, the sake warming her blood, tightening her muscles. But throughout the feeling of satisfied contentment, one troubling thought remained: _those two murdered chuunin. In the likeness of both Naruto and myself… and the knife with the picture of Tsunade-shishou. It may be a sick joke, like she said… but what if someone's really trying to get at us? What if it's a lure, a trap?_ Sakura, an expert on traps of any kind, exhaled slowly, trying to regain her bearings. Maybe drinking sake and thinking deeply didn't go too well together. _But another thing: who could it be? It seems kind of grotesquely juvenile, sending warnings that way… but, then, who could do it? The Akatsuki must still be after Naruto, and they can't love me too much either, after Sasori of the Red Sand. Orochimaru is down for the count, and nobody has any idea where Sasuke is, so…_

There was no one.

Sighing irritably, Sakura ordered another sake, tugging on a stubborn lock of pink hair that never seemed to stay in place, and turned around in her seat by the bar, sea-foam eyes sweeping over the contents of the small area. This place was her favorite bar to drink alone… nobody she knew ever came here. There was nobody to come up and hail her drunkenly, no inebriated Genma to flirt with her, no raucously loud Ino and Chouji, her newest and longest-lasting partner… just a bar with a couple ex-shinobi or civilians, an older chuunin couple she didn't know by name, and Hyuuga Neji entering through the front door.

Wait.

What?

Sakura frowned as the bartender returned with her sake, watching the elite ANBU jounin come through the door, jacket hanging limply from his shoulders. As he approached the counter, she turned quickly so he didn't see her staring at him. But her brow deepened in the middle in puzzlement as the Hyuuga prodigy came up to the seat next to her at sat casually, ordering a scotch. Did geniuses go to bars? And if they did, why did Neji come here by himself?

"Haruno," his voice interrupted her train of thought as he nodded to her in greeting.

"Neji-san," she acknowledged him with a nod of her own, sipping her drink thoughtfully. "What brings you here?" It was out before she could stop it, but she felt herself almost desperate for a normal conversation after Tsunade's earlier that day. "You're usually with your team at Tsuki's, aren't you?" she questioned, naming the popular bar most shinobi went at night.

"Hai," he answered, giving a grateful nod to the bartender that returned with his scotch, "but Lee and TenTen were getting… ah… _close_, and three is a crowd."

Sakura giggled. "But two's company," she said, lifting her glass. "Cheers to us loners."

With a dry half-smirk, he clinked glasses with her, sipping his drink leisurely. "Were you on a mission today?" he asked her without really thinking, leaning back in his chair. "You're usually at Ichiraku with Uzumaki when I pass by at lunchtime, but Hinata was with him this time."

She smiled. "Aa, I told her to go instead of me. I didn't have a mission, but Tsunade-shishou kept me in the office for a while. She was in an odd mood today, actually. It was kind of creepy."

"Creepy?" the elder man asked, turning to her with a slim brown eyebrow raised. "How so?"

She turned to him as well, taking in the full sight of him: Hyuuga symbol on the shoulders of a cream-colored, long-sleeved jacket that was open to reveal a black mesh shirt. Black pants covered in pockets, tied neatly with a belt with numerous scroll pockets. His traditional ANBU black vest was hanging limply off his shoulders, as well, and his hair wasn't tied, although it was rather messily slipping down his back. "She kept talking about death, and she asked me for candidates for the next Hokage. Also-" Sakura stopped, biting her lips. The information about the murdered Suna chuunin was confidential, and she was not authorized to reveal it. "There's been some trouble in Suna that's rather disturbing. I'm afraid I can't tell you more."

He nodded in agreement. "Who did you list for Rokudaime candidates?"

"Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, Jiraiya," she listed slowly, ticking each off on her fingers. "Yamato-senpai and yourself could also be good candidates."

"I don't to be Hokage," Neji said simply, shaking his head, "so that leaves Kakashi, Naruto, Jiraiya, and Yamato."

Sakura was silent for a moment. "Y'know, I really want Naruto to be Hokage, Neji-san. I'm not quite sure why, but it seems right somehow."

Neji nodded. "I don't know why, either, but it seems that way to me, as well. Probably to anyone that's ever fought him before. But I can't explain it."

Sakura mock-gasped in surprise, a hand fluttering at her mouth. "Almighty Hyuuga-sama doesn't know something! This could be a true sign of the apocalypse; quick, give me a scroll so I can mark it down."

He handed her a cocktail napkin sarcastically. "Will this do?"

"Good enough." And true to her word, she pulled a pen from the pocket of her black vest and scribbled with loopy handwriting on the paper: _November 17: Hyuuga Neji didn't have an answer for something! Stop the presses!_ Smirking, she handed him the napkin back. "Souvenir."

"Mm, thanks." He rolled lavender-tinted eyes at her and put the napkin down, taking another sip of his drink. At the relaxed pause in conversation, he stole a glance at her. Sakura had gone back to a red dress, although this one was styled like the shirt she'd worn at fifteen, going down to mid-thigh and fading in color on the way down. Slits in the dress showed chunky black shorts, and over it was her own black vest. The Haruno clan symbol was bold in the center of her chest, and a white belt was slung low on her hips, various pouches of what he guessed to be medical equipment attached carefully. She had kept her white elbow braces and black gloves, the latter currently hanging from her belt, but had added a kunai holster at her right thigh and had traded in her black boots for regulation ninja sandals. On missions, he knew, she would have her ANBU katana slung carelessly behind her. She had a diamond much like the Hokage's in the center of her ANBU tattoo, and her hair was as cropped as ever. "What are _you_ doing here? You're usually more social than this." Why he was asking, he had no idea, but the pause in conversation had begun to get uncomfortable.

She shrugged one shoulder lazily, finishing her sake. "Like I said, I was a bit disconcerted from Tsunade-shishou's talk earlier today. I just kind of wanted to relax, and a noisy bar isn't the best place to do it." She opened one of the pouches at her hip and withdrew some money, putting it down on the counter. "It was nice to talk to you, Neji-san. We should talk more-- outside of missions. You're all businesslike on them, it's hard to get a friendly word in edgewise." She gave him a joking wink.

He nodded, smirking. "Have a good night."

"You, too. Ja." Sakura smiled at him tiredly and exited the bar, stretching her arms above her head luxuriously. It had been nice to talk to Neji… she'd barely exchanged more than the necessity of words with him, and only on missions. Before Sasuke had left, she'd regarded him as little more than another icy-cold, pompous clan genius. After his team had gone with hers to help Gaara, she'd realized he was much more open than before, and they started exchanging polite hellos in the street. Now, he still wasn't totally different. Still a man of few words (or so it seemed), with dry humor and a sharp wit. Still gorgeous (_Hey, I can admit it!_) as anything… actually, Inner Sakura had had something like a field day when he'd stretched his arm to take his drink, his mesh shirt opening somewhat to reveal toned muscles.

Sakura groaned to herself as she strolled the moonlit streets, reminding herself that she'd long since sworn off men.

_Oh, well. Naruto and Sai have gotten pretty damn gorgeous, and I'm still friends with them without drooling. I can be the same with Neji. It's good to have friends in high places._

…_**Especially if those friends are drop-dead-**_

Sakura forcefully pushed away the interjections of her inner self and walked briskly up the steps of the townhouse she shared with Naruto and Sai, willing herself to be quiet. Shivering as she pulled out her key, Sakura rubbed her arms for warmth. _It's getting colder_, she thought absently, inserting the key into the lock and pushing the door open, instinctively ducking as the homemade traps they'd put it caused a kunai to go flying out the front door and into the small patch of green they used as a lawn, joining about fifteen others.

_Sai is cleaning that up tomorrow morning_, she thought irritably, closing the door with her foot and relocking it. _I pity Naruto the time he comes in drunk and forgets there's a trap._

Willing herself to be quiet, Sakura shed her vest and shoes and tiptoed upstairs to her room, smiling habitually at the freakishly loud snores coming from Naruto's. She kept her door open somewhat (Naruto's snores were actually kind of comforting on lonely nights) and changed into short pajama shorts and one of Sai's old T-shirts, large enough to go almost to her knees.

Sakura brushed her teeth and hair and washed her face, routinely putting her short hair in a ponytail before creeping into her bed and hugging the pillows to her face. For some reason, even with Sai's shirt wrapped comfortably around her petite form and Naruto's deafening snores resounding in her brain, Sakura felt lonely.

And she had no idea why.

After several hours' failed attempts at sleep, after tossing and turning and staring at the ceiling with dead eyes, Sakura got out of the bed, pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes. The whole day had been disconcerting-- Tsunade's strange talk about death and the next Hokage, the two chuunin made to look like her and Naruto and murdered in the most horrible, stomach-churning ways, and then talking to Neji. She wasn't sure why speaking to the Hyuuga prodigy had added to that, but for whatever reason, talking to him made her slightly sad. _I can't sleep like this_, she decided mentally, her thoughts weary. For some strange, hateful reason, she felt like crying. _Not alone._

Sakura sniffed heartily and exited her room. Not feeling like she could take Naruto's snoring so close, she crept into Sai's room, sliding into the bed with him, willing him not to wake up.

But Sai stirred next to her, sitting up, turning on a dim light groggily. "Ugly?"

"Not now, Sai, please," she whispered, her back to him.

Sai was silent, but he turned off the light again and slid back under the bedcovers. He caught her around the waist and pulled her to him, comprehending human nature enough, for once, to just let her rest against his body and share his warmth. For some reason, he found himself rubbing her back to help her sleep, like a child.

Sakura smiled slightly and relaxed her muscles, thanking whoever or whatever she could for two great brothers, backrubs, and the warmth next to her that kept her, for a little while, from being lonely all alone.

---

Author's Note: Mmmph... another NejiSaku. I was hoping to get out of that particular rut, but so sue me... it's addicting. However, I feel really excited about this one. I promise I'll finish it, too... visit my profile for details concerning Paper Stars and Contingency, both discontinued and deleted. My apologies. But in any case, I'm coming back to you with a somewhat edited writing style, a whole trunkful of new ideas, and a lot of happiness, so hopefully you won't totally kill me for deleting those two.

Basically, I'm trying to clean up my writing...

Anyway, I know this chapter is relatively short-- it's acting somewhat like a prologue without actually being called a prolouge.

The blue button down there loves you, as do I: constructive criticism and flattering (?) reviews make my day.

Hope you liked the first chapter of Nascence.


	2. Rivers of Wine

**Nascence**

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_II: Rivers of Wine_

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Something was wrong… very, incredibly, indisputably wrong.

She felt it in a dreamless sleep that started out easy but then merged into a night of fitful tossing and turning. Something was bothering her, probing at her mind, but every time she got close, it was like a door slammed right in front of her. She didn't understand. Lying still with her eyes turned towards the ceiling and Sai's arm still around her waist, she drew what comfort she could from the warm bed and pressed her hands to her eyes, trying to force the thought of murdered chuunin in her likeness, disturbing conversations of death, and unexplainable loneliness from her brain.

After a while, finally, Sakura felt herself trying to drift off. The door was there again, right in front of her in her half-sleep, and when she reached out for it, it slammed again. Tired and frustrated and awake again, Sakura rolled over, facing Sai's gently breathing and fighting tears of irritation, an exercise that finally, after a time, caused her to drift into a deep, dreamless rest.

_If only I could open the door…_

---

Sakura awoke with a start the next morning to a rumbling snore passing the room in the hallway. Sitting up too fast, she sat for a moment to let the stars in her eyes disappear before checking that Sai was still asleep. Scowling, she leapt out of bed, ran out of the door to Sai's room, and caught Naruto by one tanned, muscular arm just before he went flying down the stairway. "Oh, Naruto," she whispered, concern creasing her brow as her friend gradually woke up.

With a disgruntled snort, the blonde shook his head blearily, stepping back from the edge of the stairs. "Not again," Naruto muttered, gently banging his head against the wall in frustration.

"Naruto," Sakura started irritably, rubbing sleep out of her eyes to mask the small shock of adrenaline that was coursing through her system from saving her friend from a nasty fall, "you've got to stop sleepwalking. That's the third time this week you've nearly fallen. If I didn't wake you up every time, you'd probably go flying down and break a leg."

"Sorry, Sakura-chan," her blue-eyed friend apologized sleepily, looking forlornly down the stairs. "I can't help it. I have nightmares." _About him_. It wasn't said, and yet the two of them both heard it clear as day, echoing almost forebodingly in their heads.

Sakura shook her head, pushing petal-pink bangs away from her face with a tired hand. "I'll look into something to give you a dreamless sleep when I work today. I'll be hanging out at the hospital, so I'll look through the medical scrolls. I know I've seen something like that in there. They should help with the, ah… the nightmares."

Naruto nodded and started down the stairwell, his hand safely grasping the rail. "Thanks. I sure could use it. I'm not sure how I'd tell everyone I broke my leg because I fell down the stairs. Hey-- why were you in Sai's room?" he asked suddenly, turning his head.

"I couldn't sleep," Sakura answered simply, making a smaller deal out of it than it had felt last night. _It felt horrible last night_, she added mentally, following him down. "I felt kind of lonely."

"Aww, you could have slept in my room, Sakura-chan!"

She whacked him on the head nonchalantly and in an attempt at normality, padding towards the kitchen with a yawn that cracked her jaw. "You snore too loud. Why d'you think you wake me up when you pass by? I pity the woman that marries you." Grinning and happy for the change in topic, Sakura approached the stove, trying to start a burner without any success.

Naruto rubbed his head, giving her an exaggerated pout as he took four eggs and a carton of orange juice from the small refrigerator. In a practiced gesture, he tossed them at her one at a time, and she caught each egg between her fingers and the juice with her other hand, not even looking. Naruto filled up a small saucepan of water and she put the eggs in whole, setting them on their old, rickety, temperamental oven. It was easy to see it had been thoroughly used… they got so frustrated with it sometimes that evidence of Katon jutsu nearly covered the body of the appliance.

Sakura frowned lightly. "Why haven't we bought a new oven yet? We've got money."

Naruto gave his trademark fox-like grin. "Sentimental value. Half those Katon jutsu are mine, those ink stains come from Sai, and those dents in the side are most definitely from your 'fists of fury'. Why should we get rid of it?"

The pink-haired woman looked at him with one eyebrow raised. "It doesn't _work_," she said pointedly, trying in vain to get the flames to come up.

"Oh."

Sakura gave a triumphant grin as flames finally popped from the burner and put the saucepan on top of it, scratching her head. "What are you doing today?"

The blonde, currently disabling their trap, shrugged absently. "Nothing, unless Granny Tsunade has a job for me. I thought I'd take Hinata out or something."

Sakura grinned at him. "It's about time you took on her a real date. Enjoy ramen yesterday?"

Naruto blushed noticeably, reddening under his perpetual tan. "Yeah. She's really nice. And… and really pretty."

Sakura's giggles were barely stifled as she trotted up the stairs. "Of course she is, you dolt. Watch the eggs; I'm going to get ready."

After a quick shower, Sakura changed into the white, high-collared tunic, black skirt, and black belt that signified her as a professional medic, beyond a nurse's or even doctor's ability. That had been a moment of pride, too… her very first medic-nin uniform, so different from the nurse or doctor uniforms. So much simpler, so much nicer, so much more professional. She was of the highest rank in the hospital… everyone, younger and older, reported to her and only her, unless Tsunade was around. _Plus, I don't have to wear that godforsaken nurse's hat anymore_, Sakura reflected with a small, inward smile as she jogged downstairs again.

Sai was in the kitchen already, swapping insults with Naruto and chewing on his hard-boiled egg casually while peering over the blonde Kyuubi-container's shoulder to read the Konoha newspaper. "Morning, Ugly," he said cheerfully, his signature half-smile carefully pasted on.

Sakura patted him on the head a little harder than necessary at the ritual nickname and grabbed her own egg, leaving the customary two for Naruto's huge appetite. "Okay, guys. I'm going to be at the hospital till about five P.M. I'm having lunch with Shizune and Tsunade-shishou at twelve, and I'll stop at the store on the way home… what d'you want for dinner?" she asked as an afterthought, packing her bag with various scrolls and supplies, tossing in a rice ball wrapped in paper for a snack.

"Fish," Sai said, just as Naruto told her "ramen".

Sakura sighed. "Fine, chicken, then." Smiling sweetly, she slung the pack of her shoulder and kissed both their foreheads, standing on tiptoe. _When did they all get this tall?_ "Naruto, don't upset Hinata in _any way_, Sai, I want those kunai in the yard cleaned up by the time I'm back, and both of you, don't blow up the house." Giving a wave, she cleared the space from the front door to the edge of the lawn in two steps and flew down the street, a pink, black, and white blur.

Naruto felt the spot on his forehead where she'd kissed it and scowled. "Y'know, she's getting more like both a freaking mother and a little kid every day."

Sai shrugged and stole Naruto's egg, taking a huge bite amid vehement protests. "Whatever. I kind of like it that way."

Naruto would never admit it, of course, but he did, too.

---

Sakura whistled low between her teeth as she examined her former sensei, beat up and bloodied after a tough mission. "Kakashi-sensei, really. You're slipping. This was only A-rank!"

"_Only_ A-rank, she says," the Copycat Ninja muttered, shaking his masked head wearily, "as if she's been on so many S-ranks as _semi-daughter to the Hokage_ she gets to critique her former sensei. Oh, this new generation… they're all so disrespectful."

"Talking to yourself, too? You _are_ getting old." Grinning cheekily, Sakura moved a green glowing hand from his bicep to his stomach, sealing a kunai wound. "I'm just kidding, sensei. You're perfectly fit, and these are relatively minor wounds. You'll need about a half an hour to recuperate, and then you can get out of here to read your precious book."

"It's a new edition," Kakashi explained excitedly while Sakura rolled her eyes. "Jiraiya published it just for me. It features a whole new cast of characters, but it's so past the Mature rating that the hospital confiscated it. Damn officials."

Sakura giggled and crossed over to the sink, washing her hands. "Poor Kaka-sensei. The hospital's the only place you can't read your perverted book." She dried her hands on a paper towel and tossed the dirty paper away, packing up her medical supplies and smiling at her silver-haired teacher. "I'll see you later. I need to get to the next patient. Do _not_ sneak out early like last time, or I'll take you to Tsunade-shishou. Understood?"

Sighing, Kakashi nodded in defeat, and Sakura left the room, still smiling. As she entered the next one, though, and saw who was in it, she had to fight to press down fits of giggles that fought in her throat.

Hyuuga Neji, in all his regal, Hyuuga-robed glory, was sitting petulantly on the bed with a black eye blooming spectacularly over his cheekbone. His head was resting on a tightly clenched fist, and he was glaring at nothing in particular, looking very much like a spoiled child who hadn't gotten his own way.

"Neji-san?" Sakura ventured carefully, trying valiantly to swallow a grin.

He turned his smoldering glare to her.

Composing herself, Sakura walked briskly to her newest patient, grabbing her clipboard and a pen. "So… what happened to you?"

Neji scowled at her. "What does it matter how I got it so long as it's fixed?"

She smiled sweetly at him, waving the clipboard. "Hospital regulations, so sorry. It's required, otherwise I can't treat you. Kind of like a mission report."

He huffed for a moment, then turned his head away from her so that she was staring at his profile from the side. Pale purple eyes narrowed as he mumbled something.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that, Neji-san."

He shot a glance at her, realizing that she was dearly enjoying this, and gritted his teeth. "Lee surprised me."

Sakura wasn't strong enough to keep back the snort that came in a most unladylike manner from her mouth. Rearranging her features into those of business, she turned away from his death glare and rummaged through a cupboard, Neji watching with ever-narrowed eyes as she grabbed a cream of some sort and scribbled something rapidly on the clipboard. "Well, Neji-san," she started, her voice strained as she sat next to him, "I'm happy to know you two are sparring together. But really, you have to be more careful. You didn't see him coming with Byakugan?" she asked innocently, shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.

Neji growled as she started dabbing the cream onto his cheek. "Haruno, if you don't shut the _fuck_ up and treat this thing, I'm walking out."

"In plain view of all those that would tease you… ano… mercilessly?" She chuckled. "I don't think so. Besides, you're my patient; I'm obligated to treat you."

Neji said nothing as she pressed a warm hand to his cheek, green chakra spreading throughout her fingers and onto the wound. The pain disappeared completely, though he'd been ignoring it anyway, and he resumed his glaring when she finished. "Arigatou," he said stiffly.

"Oh, Neji-san, I was only teasing," Sakura said from over her shoulder as she washed her hands. "What are you doing today?"

He looked at her suspiciously. "Why?" he asked, pulling on his vest again and tying his long hair back in a mid-length ponytail.

Sakura sighed and leaned against the wall, crossing her arms. "Goodness, can't I just ask you a question? Just trying to be friendly."

Neji felt a twinge of guilt and shook it off quickly, sighing. "If I must. I'm going to lunch, and then visiting Hinata so we can train." He stood. "How are _you_ spending the day?" he shot back, staring at her.

She grinned perkily and complied, grabbing a mirror from her pocket and checking her hair quickly while she answered. "Lunch with Shizune and Tsunade-shishou, then probably coming back here, unless they don't need me. If they don't, I'll probably go to the Academy."

"The Academy?" he echoed, quirking a slim brown eyebrow. "You teach?"

She nodded, putting the mirror back in her dress pocket and leading the way out, putting her arms behind her back in a stretch. "At times, yeah: chakra control. And sometimes minor-injury healing for the students that want to be a medic, part-time or otherwise. But right now I'm trying to demolish the separation in some of the lessons."

"Why?" Neji asked, following her out. His mind flashed back to his Academy days, when sometimes the girls would leave the classroom for private lessons.

Sakura frowned. "Technically, you're not supposed to know this, but those private lessons were basically on how to be a prostitute, or fake being a prostitute. It's a horrible thing to know, especially when you're just twelve years old, but it comes in useful during missions. No offense, but it's easy to distract a man, even a shinobi, when your shirt's dipping to your navel," she added blithely, ignoring the light blush that skirted across Neji's cheeks. "But because the male shinobi of Konoha don't go to that class, they're entirely unprepared for a rival kunoichi seducing them. If they don't know the telltale signs of a fake prostitute, some can be easily led astray. So Tsunade and I are asking the elders for permission to merge the classes, but they're stubborn as anything."

Neji nodded as they exited the hospital, sticking his hands casually into his pockets. "Yes, I see the logic in that. It's a good idea."

She smiled easily at him. "Arigatou."

The brown-haired shinobi stopped suddenly, alert. "The Hokage wants you, Sakura-san."

Sakura looked at him in amazement, sea foam eyes widened slightly. "How d'you know that?"

"I can hear her shoes clacking fast towards us," he answered.

Sakura concentrated for a moment, then grinned as a faint clicking, growing steadily louder, echoed in her own ears. "Wow. You really know how to use your senses, don't you? That's amazing." Sure enough, the busty blonde Hokage was walking towards them briskly, heels clicking audibly on the pavement.

"Hokage-sama," Neji greeted, nodding his head, as Sakura waved at her teacher.

Tsunade nodded her own greeting, but he noticed that she seemed distracted. A light frown creased her brow, and her crimson lips were rolled together in a gesture of anxiety. "Sakura, I'd like to speak to you now. I've told Shizune that lunch is off." She hesitated, then glanced at Neji. "Actually, you, too, Hyuuga. Meet me at my office." Without another word uttered, the Godaime leapt into the air, disappearing on sight.

Neji glanced at Sakura, who shrugged, and they followed suit, leaping and vanishing to the naked eye to follow their leader.

---

"The situation has gotten worse."

Tsunade sat sternly across from them at her desk, hands folded, face set in a grim mask. In front of her laid a scroll decorated in the Kazekage's handwriting, with two pictures face-down on top of it.

Sakura immediately paled at her words, but Neji merely frowned. "Situation?"

Tsunade sighed. "There have been threats to Sakura, Naruto, and me by way of murders in Suna. Gaara sent a message about it to me yesterday, and I showed Sakura. Two chuunin, male and female, were disguised to look like Naruto and Sakura and killed violently, and a threatening picture of me was found on the female shinobi." She paused, turning her chair to face the windows. "It was troubling, yes, but I had dismissed it from my mind, in a way. Until this came." She motioned towards the scroll, and Sakura picked it up, reading aloud.

"'Tsunade-sama-- In regards to the most recent message I sent, I send you more troubling news. We took the two late chuunin in for examination, but they have disappeared from our holdings, and the guards we posted to protect the bodies murdered gruesomely. We suspect someone on the inside of our government, but our investigations have lent us no clues. However, one thing the thieve(s) left were two photographs, which are enclosed in this message as well. It seems like this person or organization wants us to find out who they are, but they are leaving a very, very hard trail to pick up. Please lend us some of your ANBU Black Ops as soon as possible-- I don't want any more deaths. --Gaara," Sakura finished, face white.

Neji's face was creased in a concerned frown as Tsunade nodded. "It is, indeed, very troubling. But even more so are the pictures the criminal left." She handed them to Neji first.

The Hyuuga prodigy stifled a gasp and passed them onto Sakura, his face equally pale.

The first picture was one of the murdered chuunin. The male's blue eyes, so like and yet so unlike Naruto's, were open, his mouth agape in a silent scream of pain. Blood seeped into the ground from multiple chest wounds. The female, though, was the most horrible looking. From her navel to the beginning of her thighs, she had been completely cut open. Organs spilled from her stomach.

The sight of a girl with pink hair and light green eyes, made to look like her, made Sakura's head spin and bile well up in her throat. She quickly grabbed the next photograph, trying to compose herself.

This one was more mysterious, and more than a little strange… it was all red. That was it. Deep, dark shades of red with a glimmering shine. "Blood?" she asked aloud.

Tsunade took the photographs from her, lips pursed. "Maybe. It's nearly impossible to tell, though. They'll have to be analyzed in a further inspection." She put the stomach-churning pictures face-down on the desk again and rolled up the scroll smartly, returning to her former position. "Now, for why I called you both here. Sakura, I wanted you to know to begin with, since you're involved, and I'd like you to tell Naruto, as well. And Hyuuga, you were somewhat of an afterthought, actually-- but I'd like you to organize and lead Gaara's requested ANBU team."

"Of course, Hokage-sama," Neji accepted in his low baritone voice, soft with the aftereffects of shock. "What will my team do there?"

"You will do whatever Gaara commands you to do," Tsunade replied, "which I'm thinking will revolve around reconnaissance, guard duty, and protection. I want you to select only the best; these killers are obviously ruthless and extremely dangerous, most likely S-rank or missing nin. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I do. How much time do I have?"

Tsunade looked out the window at the sun for the time, forehead puckering in thought. "I'd like the team assembled at nightfall for my instructions and on their way to Suna directly after that."

Sakura stood and walked numbly to the door, her role in the conversation over.

"Sakura, where are you going? You're not finished here."

She whipped her pink head back at her former teacher, frowning. "Tsunade-shishou?"

Tsunade gazed into her green eyes with an expression akin to maternal pride. "You will undoubtedly be a part of Hyuuga's team."

"Nani?"

Sakura sat down again in absolute shock, her mouth agape. "Wh-- why?"

The Hokage smiled dryly. "Because, out of all the ANBU jounin, you're our best medic, our second-best strategist, and an expert at reconnaissance and guard jobs. Is that reason enough?"

The pink-haired teen flushed the same color as the dress she'd worn when she was twelve. "…oh. Arigatou."

Neji nodded. "It's a good choice, Hokage-sama." _Why'd I say that?_ he wondered suddenly, but all misgivings dissipated immediately as Sakura shot him a grateful smile. _Oh. That's why._

Tsunade smirked. "I know it's a good decision; I trained her, didn't I?" She gazed at them both for a series of long moments before sighing and sliding the scroll and enclosed photographs into a drawer of her desk and made a series of hand signs, creating a chakra lock to prevent thieves of any sort from stealing the important information. "You're dismissed," she added to the both of them, hazel eyes glancing up. "Get a team together. I want all of you at the gates at eight o'clock sharp. Pack light necessities and heavy weaponry."

The two jounin nodded and stood stoically, exiting the room with an air of solemnity. Once outside the office, Sakura let out a breath she hadn't know she'd been holding in an audible whoosh. "Neji-san?"

He turned his head to her. She looked smaller than usual. "Yes?"

"That picture, the one that was all red and glimmering. What do you suppose it was?" she asked quietly as they strode through the main street. People bustled around them happily, arguing over prices and laughing over jokes. A group of young, teenage, chuunin girls giggled and 'ooh'-ed over a sparkling necklace in a jewelry shop. An academy-student-age group of laughing children, vaguely reminiscent of Konohamaru and his friends when they were younger, darted between them, laughing and tagging each other. All were completely unaware of the dangers that loomed over them like thunderclouds, threatening lightning and heavy rain.

Sakura realized that might just be a good thing. _Ignorance is bliss._ Unfortunately, she mused, shinobi couldn't be ignorant. Ignorance could cost you your life as a ninja.

Neji was silent for a moment, contemplating, his face typically blank, and then sighed softly. "I really couldn't tell you, Sakura-san. It could be blood, as is my first impression, or it could be something entirely different. I'm as lost as you are, and, frankly, I'm not used to that. The sooner we get to Suna and figure all this out, the better."

Sakura smiled slightly at his honest statement and re-gripped the strap of her bag. "This is my street… I'll see you tonight, ne?"

She was halfway down the street, about to pad onto the walkway in front of her home, when Neji stopped to think, a frown etched on his normally calm face. Turning suddenly, he yelled in a very un-Hyuuga-like way: "Sakura-san! Wait!"

Sakura turned quickly on the spot, toes pointed slightly in the style of a shinobi, an unmistakable reflex. "Yeah?"

"I'm going to gather the team now," he started, his voice calm once more and eyes blank, "and I'd value your opinion and aid."

The kunoichi blinked once, then grinned at him again. "I'd love nothing more than to help." She started off again, this time after him, and Neji had to hide a small smile at her enthusiasm. "Who were you thinking of taking?" she asked, voice casual. But Neji saw the smallest flicker of worry in those deep eyes… she was thinking about the photographs, he knew.

Perception was sometimes such a pain.

Going with her light choice of topics, the prized shinobi answered her truthfully. "Inuzuka, Akimichi, Aburame, and Yamanaka are, I believe, out in Mist for the remainder of the week… well, besides, Yamanaka and Aburame aren't ANBU. They're simply jounin, correct?"

Sakura nodded, indicating that he was correct. "Ino never did want to be ANBU. I don't know much about Shino-san, though."

"Uzumaki should be included. And Nara is always good to have on a team." Neji gazed at the sun, lowering slightly, and judged the time to be about two o'clock. His stomach growled. Tsunade's interruption, though important, had cost them both their lunches.

"True." Sakura nodded thoughtfully. "We might need taijutsu and weapons experts for the guard duty or protection, and another Byakugan for reconnaissance. Too bad Kiba's gone-- his nose would be perfect for that." The medic kunoichi paused. "I highly recommend Lee-san and TenTen for guard duty and Sai for reconnaissance. That makes a team of seven."

Neji nodded at her choices. "When they get back, I'd also like Yamanaka, Inuzuka, and Akimichi for backup. Aburame could scout, if we need him later."

Sakura bit her lower lip, frowning as she pondered. "Are you splitting us up into teams?"

"Maybe," Neji answered. "I'm not sure. It depends on how the mission is going once we get to Suna, and the Kazekage's wishes." He was silent for a while, and they both walked in a comfortable quiet, gazing at the people sitting in outdoor restaurants or munching on a snack from a street vendor. "Sakura-san, may I ask you something?"

"'Course," she replied with a flash of a smile, leading him to a dango vendor and ordering a plate. "Do you want one?"

"Ah… sure." He got out some coins, but Sakura put her own money down first, shaking her head.

"My treat," the pink-haired kunoichi insisted, handing him his stick of dango. "So, go on. What was your question?"

Neji bit into his lunch, tasting the unusual but not fully unpleasant texture of the snack, and swallowed slowly. "Will you be able to handle this? Not a question of your integrity, really, but those chuunin-"

Sakura cut him off by waving the stick of dango in front of his face, her cheeks bulging as she chewed ravenously. Gulping the food down hard, she shook her head at him adamantly. "I'm a kunoichi, Neji-san. We're not so easily frightened off." But her smile was pained.

"If you're going to have emotional conflicts with this mission, you shouldn't go," he remarked bluntly. "I have to know now."

Sakura looked lost for a moment, as if this was something she'd never expected he'd ask so brusquely. Lowering the stick of dango, she licked her lips to get the crumbs off, frowning. "I won't let it distract me, if that's what you're asking." She shot him a disappointed glare. "You don't seem afraid of _Naruto_ being distracted, and it was a likeness of him that was murdered, too."

Neji suddenly realized how terribly sexist he'd probably sounded, and how Sakura's old reputation of being somewhat of an emotionally weak little girl was probably a point that probably still wasn't easily discussed without a show of her infamous temper. "My apologies," he conceded, running a hand through his hair in the largest display of sheepishness he'd probably ever publicly shown. "I didn't mean it like that. It's just…"

"I understand," she said quietly, chucking her empty dango stick at the trash can as Neji started on his final one. "Naruto handles himself by expressing any complicated emotions through anger."

"You don't?" he asked, slightly amused as he recalled recounts of her horrible temper, rumored to be matched only by the Hokage's. Hokage only knew how many times he'd seen Naruto wobble into Ichiraku with a bruise on his cheek, compliments of the petite kunoichi next to him.

She punched him lightly on the arm, a friendly gesture he wasn't really used to. Frowning slightly, he stepped away, but she either didn't notice or care. "Hey, I know stories of my short temper circulate almost daily, don't try to hide it. I'm just better at concealing it now. Naruto's kind of my living punching bag."

Neji chuckled, surprising both himself and Sakura, and the latter was pleased to notice that his laugh wasn't reined in, as she'd supposed it was. He dumped his trash into the nearest can as she had done and formed his face back into the usual stoic mask. "I imagine that would be useful."

"Extremely so," she agreed, checking her nails in a show of nonchalance. "I'd suggest you try it on Lee-san, but considering that black eye I healed this morning…"

Neji growled at her. "Haruno, you tell anyone about that and…"

"And?" she inquired sweetly.

"I'll tell Lee you're smitten with him."

Sakura gasped and glared at his sickeningly smug face, his lips turned up at one corner in an undeniable smirk. "You wouldn't dare."

"Would I?"

She punched him again, and he didn't step back. "Meanie. I should just refuse the mission."

"Oh, what a loss," he replied sarcastically, all pretense of emotionless-ness banished from his mocking face.

Sakura pretended to look hurt as they crossed the cobbled streets to her street, having done a full loop around the main square of Konoha. "You wound me deeply, Hyuuga-sama. Just wait till you come back, half-dead with Lee carrying you on his back, bleeding over the gates. You'll wish I was there, you ungrateful genius."

His pale lavender eyes quirked up as he smirked at her again, stopping in front of her house. "'Genius' being the operative word, Haruno, I don't think I'll be defeated so easily. I probably won't have need of your services at all."

She made a face at him and put her hands on her waist, cocking one hip arrogantly. "We'll see about that, you pompous prodigy." Giggling, she started up the walkway to the townhouse, noting with satisfaction that there were no kunai on the lawn. "I'll tell Naruto and Sai about the mission, and we'll meet you by the gates at eight."

Neji nodded. "Ja ne. Arigatou for your company and advice."

"Oh, it was no problem. Anything for a friend, eh? Ja!"

_A friend? Since when? _As he walked away, fully intent on finding the ideal members for his newest team, Neji looked over his shoulder just in time to see Sakura looking after him. Rolling his eyes as she stuck her tongue out at him, he continued, purposefully ignoring the small smile that was fighting at his cheeks.

A Hyuuga seen smiling in public just _wouldn't do_.

---

Author's Note: I'm sorry it took so long for me to update, but life's been pretty busy. I have an ankle injury that tied me up for a while, and now I'm sick, so I haven't had much time to write... I hope you all like this chapter, though. I know I do!

By the way-- if you're wondering why I reply to your comments, here's your answer: I find that author/reviewer communication works best if I actually send notes to each of you personally. I'm not sure if you appreciate it or if you just find it annoying, but I kind of like responding to you guys.

Thanks for your patience and your comments-- I'm always open to constructive critique and other comments!

--Dejeuner


	3. Diamond Spangled City

**Nascence**

---

_II: Diamond-Spangled City_

---

_When Naruto greeted Sakura as she walked inside, hailing her cheerfully with a glass of milk, she had looked slightly surprised, and a weak smile crossed her face._

_Something was obviously very wrong._

_And when she told him what was wrong, he wished he hadn't asked._

Sakura bit her lips as she watched Naruto's features transform from happiness to anxiety to absolute horror. "Wait… you're saying this group of people made two captured chuunin look like us? And… murdered them?"

The kunoichi of their strange little family nodded, sighing with a hand on her head. "Hai. And rather disgustingly, I have to say. The pictures weren't pretty-- even Neji-san was shaken."

"Hyuuga? Why was he there?" Sai asked, frowning slightly as he stepped from the kitchen doorway.

"He's the leader of the ANBU squad that's going to be sent out, including all three of us," Sakura answered, turning back to the stovetop and stirring the meat sauce. "That's why dinner's so early. We're supposed to be at the gates in an hour or so. I just thought I'd brief you."

Naruto nodded vaguely as Sai moved to set the table, putting down glasses and chopsticks. "Wasn't Tsunade-baa-chan worried about us?" Naruto asked. "I mean, I'm not scared or anything, but she guards you like a mother hen, and seeing our likenesses horrifyingly murdered mustn't have comforted her any."

Sakura scowled. "Tsunade-shishou realizes that I'm not a little girl anymore, and that I can handle S-rank missions. She trusts me to exhibit personal _strength_. And you… well, she trusts me to keep you out of trouble, too." She stuck her tongue out at him with a grin, and Naruto mock-growled, standing up and punching her lightly on the arm, readying his other fist for another. Sakura blocked his second punch effortlessly with her elbow and held up the wooden spoon in her other hand. "Taste this. How is it? It's made from scratch, and I'm not sure if it's right. We should get in some carbohydrates before this mission."

The cheerful blonde obediently did as asked and beamed at her. "Perfect, as usual, Sakura-chan. How'd you get to be such a good cook?"

"Practice and my mother," Sakura answered with a small smile, putting the spoon back in and watching as the sauce simmered, bubbles popping cheerfully at the surface. "She always used to teach me how to make things. Those sugar cookies you like? Her recipe, imprinted in my memory forever. I don't know why I remember those recipes, but I do."

Sai hesitated at his place next to the table, chopsticks poised in hand, listening attentively as Naruto voiced his next question. "You miss them, don't you?"

Sakura sighed, stirring silently for a while, gazing directly at the pasta sauce. "A little, I guess. Who doesn't miss their parents, after all? But all that-- I mean, all the recipes and stuff-- that was back before I wanted to go to the Academy. After that, they were unbearable, you know? They wanted a fragile little girl, not a kunoichi."

"Sucks for them," Naruto replied absently, stealing another spoonful of sauce. "You're best as you are, Sakura-chan."

"Aww, thanks. Now go sit, and stop eating the sauce, or I'll break your nose."

Naruto wisely backed from the kitchen.

---

The whole mission was disconcerting, actually.

Neji waited silently, leaning against the stone wall before the city gates, his ANBU mask hung loosely from his fingers. He breathed in deeply, using his diaphragm, trying to calm himself for whatever would come. He gazed at the benches in front of him and tilted his head, trying to remember what had happened there. Something important. Something sad.

It had been Sakura, of course-- he remembered now. He remembered how he had been walking briskly in the other direction, trying to get to the Hyuuga compound after a bit of early-morning training, when she had barreled into him. He had turned to complain, or at least to remark coldly about carrying oneself honorably, but her face had stopped him dead. It was fear, plain and stark in her tearful green eyes, and the sort of emotional pain he hadn't experienced for a long time. She had brushed her fingers against his arm, as if she desired his help, and then thinking better of it and retracting them. She had said in a rush: "Gomen, Hyuuga-san. I…" And then had shaken her head and spun away from him, running to the Hokage's offices faster than he probably could have ever sprinted.

He had dismissed it as girlish folly… she had probably been turned down for a date or something, or was going to the newest Hokage for training and had thought of something depressing along the way.

But when Shikamaru had come to him, requesting his aid to bring back Uchiha Sasuke, he had reconsidered. And when the team had all stood at the gates, when Sakura had ran up to them and sobbed to Naruto to bring her teammate back, Neji felt the tiniest bit sorry he hadn't helped her in the first place. And he felt somewhat confused when Naruto, who so obviously had had the largest crush on her, promised heartily to bring her love back-- the promise sealed with Rock Lee's trademarked 'Nice Guy' pose.

He remembered coming back and hearing whispers of how Sasuke had said something to her to make her break down completely… and he remembered the more-than-whispers saying of how she had been left on the cold stone bench, all alone and unconscious, while her former teammate left Konoha for power.

But that was long ago.

Now, she was an S-rank, ANBU kunoichi, specializing in genjutsu and medical jutsus and with an A-rank on her taijutsu. After the Sand incident, she was also Konoha's master of potions and poisons… useful to have in undercover missions. She was no pushover. She wouldn't be left on cold benches any longer, and she had made sure of that herself.

Neji felt oddly proud of her-- a girl that wasn't even on his team, a girl he used to absolutely _despise_. A girl he never paid any attention to… until now. Until last night, when she had talked with him at the bar, revealing herself as a witty, self-confident, and charming _woman_. It was a large step from what she had been, that was certain, and he had been rather taken aback. He had been taken aback when she had been accepted as the Hokage's apprentice… he had been completely shocked when she became ANBU a mere year after him.

A pitter-patter of familiar footsteps greeted his ears. His previous thoughts dissipating at the welcome interruption, Neji turned his head to see Sakura, Sai, and Naruto walking to him all family-like, with Shikamaru behind them, masks around their necks. His lips quirked slightly, unnervingly, at the scene: Sai had said something funny about Sakura, evidently-- Naruto was doubled over in full-blown laughter, Sakura was threatening Sai with a fist, and the ink-user himself was giving her his usual frozen smile, ignoring the fact that her eyes were turning dangerously darker. Shikamaru, of course, was rolling his eyes and muttering something under his breath about the situation.

"Neji!"

He turned his head quickly, too quickly, for the newly-arrived TenTen and Lee smiled at him, and TenTen nudged her green-clad companion with a wicked grin. "See that? Neji was staring at someone, Lee."

"Indeed he was, my beautiful Lotus blossom," Lee replied, his eyes shining. "Has our almighty Hyuuga Neji finally found the fire of love in his blood?"

"What?" Neji asked lamely.

"Oh, come _on_, Neji," TenTen said with a dismissive flap of her hand. "We both saw you staring at Shikamaru. We just didn't know you went that way."

Neji spluttered, positive that if his uncle was there, he would be Kaiten-ed into the ground right about _now_. "Wh- I don't…"

TenTen tried valiantly to keep a straight face and failed; she burst into cheerful laughter. "Oh, Neji, you should have seen your face. You're so gullible sometimes-- Sakura! I didn't know you were coming!"

As the chestnut-haired girl ran to meet her friend, Lee cast a surprisingly cunning eye on Neji. "Neji… you were staring at Sakura-san, weren't you?"

Neji felt a constriction in his chest. "Hn."

Lee shrugged, a light grin on his face, and followed Neji as the ANBU leader walked to the others. "Alright," Neji intoned, "fun's over. We'll travel together, as a group. I want Sai and TenTen at the front; Uzumaki, Nara, Lee in the middle… Haruno and I will be in back. We want to make it to Suna in around forty-eight hours. Go."

Sai and TenTen leapt into the air to start, then the middle group, and then finally Sakura and Neji. The pink-haired ANBU pushed up her mask to cover her face and turned her head to meet his as they followed Naruto, Shikamaru, and Lee's taps on the branches. "Why are we at the back?" she asked curiously, adjusting her gloves.

Neji pushed up his own mask, his hair tied back high and whipping out behind him. "I want the best at sensing enemy presences at the back. I have Byakugan, you have instinct and good chakra sense-- that's all we need."

"And why Sai and TenTen at the front?" Sakura inquired. "They're not best at trail-breaking."

"No, they're not. I'm going to have Sai make an ink bird to scout the area ahead and send a message to the Kazekage… and if anything comes up from that scouting, TenTen can take a group of enemies out in less than five seconds in a surprise attack."

Sakura nodded admiringly. "That's smart. And… let me guess: Naruto, Shikamaru, and Lee are in the middle as bulk fighters? Like, if an enemy comes from behind, Shikamaru can discreetly hold them, and Naruto and Lee take them out fast."

"Exactly. You pick up quickly."

He couldn't see it, but he felt her quirky grin in her words. "I always was a teacher's pet, I guess."

She couldn't see it, but she could feel his satisfied smirk even when he didn't say anything.

---

The storm clouds gathered above their camp like warning signs.

Sakura tilted her head upwards to receive the first of the raindrops, a clear taste spreading throughout her mouth. The fire they had built courtesy of a Katon jutsu was smoking and sizzling as it rained a little harder, the stars blocked by angry clouds. Slowly, so slowly, she put her head down on the blanket of grass, closing her eyes and letting the rain hit her face.

"Haruno?"

She didn't open her eyes at Neji's voice. "Mm."

"Why are you out in the rain?" he asked, his tone a deep baritone she suddenly realized she really liked.

She smiled slightly, enjoying the feel of the rain tapping her eyelids. "Sleeping."

She felt him sit next to her and heard him chuckle dryly. "Smart."

A laugh bubbled from deep in her lungs, spilling out and mixing with the rain. "I know, I know. But it's fun to sleep in the rain."

"Really."

She opened her eyes at him, raindrops clinging to her eyelashes. "Yes. Really. You should try it sometime."

Neji rolled his eyes. He had obviously been going to sleep-- Lee was vigorously on watch on the other side of camp, so he didn't have to stay up. He was shirtless, wearing only ANBU baggy black pants, and his hair was down, now plastered to his back from the rain. His forehead protector was tied lazily around his neck, ready at a moment's notice.

Sakura herself, Neji noted silently, had taken off her outerwear and was now only in the black ANBU-regulation shirt and pants. It was simple, but he found himself appreciating the way it outlined her pink-tinted skin. Shaking those thoughts away, he returned to their conversation. "I'm going to go-- I was just doing a head count. Are you really going to sleep in the rain?"

"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't," she answered sleepily, pushing her bangs from her forehead.

Neji snorted.

"What?"

"I thought it was just a mean rumor, but… Your forehead… it really _is_ kind of big."

Sakura sat up at once and pushed him, noting with frustration that he was smirking at her. He'd gotten her riled on purpose. "Hyuuga, you're mean," she said, mock-sulking. "It's not that big."

"Humongous," he answered, lifting a finger and poking her right in the middle of said forehead. "Go sleep in a tent like a civilized person." My God. Was he joking with her? He only did that with Lee and TenTen-- and then, only rarely.

"No," she countered, "_you_ sleep outside-- like a philosophical person."

"Philosophically or psychopathically?" inquired Neji with a smirk. "I'll be sane, thanks."

"No, you won't." She tugged on his arm. "Just do it for a while, just to see what it's like. I promise you you'll enjoy it."

He sighed. "Will you go bug someone else if I do?"

"Indubitably."

"You're crazy." He put his head down a little above hers and laid there for a moment, staring at the pouring sky.

"Close your eyes, you impassive stoic."

Neji growled at her and did as asked, his lids shutting against his will. "I don't know why I'm listening to you."

"Neither do I. Be quiet."

He was.

Neji slowly felt himself drifting into a comfortable slumber. The rain was cold, considering it was late fall, but it felt refreshing as it dribbled down his bare skin. The sensation of soft grass beneath him acted like a cushion, the ground softening because of the water and molding to his shape. It was nice… it was relaxing. Not that he would tell her that. "Do you often sleep in the rain?" he asked groggily, determined not to fall prey to his exhaustion.

Sakura said nothing for a moment, and Neji feared she really was asleep, and he would have to carry her to the tent she was supposed to share with TenTen (which would further rumors of romantic entanglements, which he _really_ did not need). "Yes," she answered, mouth barely moving. "Yes, I do. When I need to think."

"Think?"

"Rainwater helps with clarity sometimes."

"You're stranger than I thought, Haruno."

"I just enjoy nature, that's all," she replied slowly, her voice tired.

Neji paused from teasing her more.

"I'll let you sleep," he said.

She smiled.

"…be ready early tomorrow."

"I'll be up before you, Neji-san. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

He stood in one swift movement and stayed there for a moment, tilting his head to look at her, in all her raindrop-sparkling glory. There was a small curve to her lips that suggested she was happy; but beneath her eyelids and water-glistening lashes, her eyes moved back and forth, a gesture of anxiousness and confusion. Her fists, slick with rain, were clenched.

Obviously… she was upset.

And what made him angry was that when he realized it, he felt slightly upset, too.

---

The ink bird from Sai's jutsu unfolded from the paper like dripping pop-art, black ink stretching elastically as it spread its wings.

The group watched in groggy awe as the bird soared above them, shrinking into the distance till it was but a spot on the clear blue sky. "Good weather conditions," Neji heard Lee say to Shikamaru while the two shinobi packed. "We could get there in an hour like this! Yosh-- let's try!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, shouldering his knapsack. "Yare, yare. It takes at least twelve hours from here to get to Suna, baka. Chill."

Next to them, Sakura giggled as she tied her mask around her head, wide-awake and cheerful after her rain-lit vigil the night before. Neji noticed that she seemed to fairly sparkle. Maybe sleeping in the rain was some sort of rejuvenating treatment all the girls knew or something.

_No. It had a deeper meaning for her._

How he knew this, he had absolutely no idea. And the fact that he was thinking it was bad enough.

Growling at himself, Neji pushed up his mask. "Okay. Sai, that bird must loop back to us every hour and report its surveillance. Same order as yesterday. Let's try to make it by sunset, at least… at eighteen hundred hours. Go."

The trip went by, at first, relatively silently-- Lee and Naruto debated the fine points of taijutsu for a while, but even they wore off after an hour or so. Sakura was uncharacteristically silent, but Neji sensed that she seemed slightly on edge-- kind of anxious about something he couldn't quite place. The pictures, of course… or maybe she, too, simply had a bad feeling about this mission.

His train of thought was interrupted by the familiar sight of the ink bird circling back to them. They paused to catch their breath and take a drink while Sai examined his bird, absorbing its information. He turned to Neji. "There are a group of thirteen jounin-level shinobi ahead of us. They have hitai-ate, but the marks are completely scratched out. Not missing-nin… just rogues."

Behind his mask, Neji's mind ticked furiously, weighing pros and cons. "Nara."

Shikamaru turned his head lazily. "Stakeout. Surveillance and decapitation if necessary."

Neji nodded. "If they pose a threat, take them down. Rogues are dangerous." He hesitated, then turned to his old female genin teammate. "TenTen, you'll be second in front… try to take down as many as you can with your weapons. Get your scrolls ready."

"Who's first in front, then?" Naruto asked curiously.

Shikamaru exchanged glances with Neji, then nodded. "Sakura," the shadow-user answered.

"Why Sakura-san?" Lee asked, his face morphing into slight disappointment.

Neji sighed irritably and crossed his arms. "Sakura can use a chakra-infused appendage and cause a seismic disturbance…" Catching Naruto's confused look, Neji sighed once more. "She can create an earthquake. It'll catch them off their guard, maybe even cause pre-battle injuries…"

"The Lotus-"

"Takes too much of your energy," Neji snapped, finishing for him. "I'm the captain here-- I'll call the shots for what's best for the team. Sakura, TenTen, go."

As Sakura took off, TenTen following close behind, her heart rose to somewhere in the region of her throat, pounding nervously. Neji was right-- rogues _could_ be dangerous. Shinobi not formally on a mission and not tied to a country were the equivalent of street gangs; they took down whoever they wanted to, whoever invaded their turf.

Blood thumped in her ears. This 'decapitation', as Shikamaru had so aptly put it, depended almost wholly on her. Her initial attack either would or wouldn't put them off balance-- at best, it could kill a few and injure the rest. At worst, it could only put them on their guard and ready themselves for attack. _We don't want them to fire one shot._ And there were so many variables-- the ground type, the amount of chakra she channeled, where she struck.

Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin as a soft hand was placed on her shoulder. TenTen pushed up her mask just enough for Sakura to see that she was smiling graciously at her, giving her a light squeeze. "Relax," the weapons expert told her. "You've done this before, and you're the best at it. Just don't think about it. React on instinct."

Sakura thanked the kunoichi with a grateful nod, turning back to the front as they homed in on the rogue group. TenTen had always been kind to her, even as genin and chuunin… before they really got to know each other. The brown-haired girl shared many of the same traits as Sakura herself-- as genin, she had even helped her with her kunai and shuriken throwing, which even Kakashi had said was superb, even on par with Sasuke's.

Back then, that compliment had made her day-- now, at the thought, such a wave of self-contempt surged through her veins it nearly made her dizzy.

Naruto tapped her on the shoulder. "Neji says another couple feet, then stop and go as fast as you can."

Sakura nodded and gestured to TenTen; the two expert shinobi leapt ahead of the others, surrounding the rogue group. Sakura could hear their voices… making crude jokes, laughing rudely, bragging. _Typical chauvinist male behavior_, she reflected with a wry smile. _They had it coming_.

Landing on a tree branch quite close to the circle of men, Sakura judged her attack. Judging by the way the ground cracked from heat, she'd have to force her chakra at a right angle, a tricky move. The soil was okay-- not the best in conditions, but dry enough to crack dramatically. If she positioned her fist right next to that rock, she would certainly cause some casualties, but she would also risk being seen and putting the unwounded shinobi on their guard; the rock was in the middle of their circle.

TenTen's presence reassured her-- they'd be dead before they even touched their weapons.

Making a split decision, Sakura pounced earthwards.

She reared her fist back, feeling the familiar tingle of chakra flow from her heart to her shoulder to her clenched fist, her gloves tightening by design to allow greater control. TenTen had been right to tell her to attack by instinct-- she had done this so many times it hardly required a second thought.

Shouts rang out from around her as her form streaked towards the ground in a whisper of black and pink.

"ANBU!"

"What's she-"

"Get her!"

Sakura smirked inwardly, her innermost self flaring up in savage delight as she heard the men reaching for their weapons. _Too late._

There was a satisfying crunch of impact; cracks spread like wildfire from the place she'd hit. The ground rumbled from seismic shifting, and Sakura wisely leapt back into the trees as the rogue shinobi stumbled and fell, cursing and crying out.

Suddenly, a barrage of weapons almost literally appeared out of nowhere in every ninja's body, thrown so fast they were almost invisible to the naked eye. Kunai, shuriken, and even some Western throwing daggers protruded from the rogues, a couple already dead from Sakura's fatal earthquake. Nobody was left standing.

Shikamaru, Lee, Neji, Sai, and Naruto strolled casually onto the scene, as if they were going for a stroll in Konoha's streets. They checked for identification, useful papers, anything important.

Naruto let out a triumphant yell, and the two girls leapt from their respective perches, nodding wordlessly at each other in congratulations for a job well done. "What is it?" Sai asked the blonde, peering over his shoulder.

"Money," the demon vessel answered simply, holding up a wad of the stuff, "from every country, of every origin. Some of these places I've never even _heard_ of."

"Emergency money for every location on the globe," Shikamaru said, pushing up his mask to reveal widened eyes. "This is crazy. Who has this much cash, especially as a rogue?"

"Anything else on the bodies?" Neji asked, examining an Earth Country coin. "These are genuine… no counterfeit operation, that's for certain. These rogues were paid, and paid well."

Lee waved his hand. "Here's something!" he said excitedly, pulling a glossy paper from the pocket of a cadaver. "It's a photo of some sort." He held it up, and Sakura and Neji gasped.

It was a picture of, unmistakably, the two murdered chuunin.

They were very and wholly alive in this one, though-- they had their original hair and eye colors, and were smiling at each other. Sakura stuttered. "Those are… those are the murdered look-alikes!" she said in a hushed tone to Naruto.

TenTen frowned. "Look-alikes?"

A quick explanation followed her inquiry, a rushed recital from Naruto, Neji, Sakura, and Sai. After their account, Shikamaru frowned, obviously quite disturbed. "The money and the photo… it doesn't exactly take a genius to figure this out. The rogues were paid this absurd amount of security money to kill and mutilate these two Suna chuunin. But by whom? And, also…" Shikamaru paused, his frown deepening. "Why keep the picture? You'd be convicted instantly if anyone saw it."

"Maybe they were just stupid," Naruto voiced with a shrug, tousling his shock of blonde hair.

"Maybe," TenTen piped up, "or maybe whoever sent them on this job wanted us to see the photo. Sort of like a treasure hunt."

"This doesn't make things any clearer," Sai said, an uncharacteristic note of irritation in his usually flat voice. "Whoever ordered these rogues to murder those two is obviously either a psychopath or a cunning, emotionless bastard."

"Either way, I'm afraid it does not bode well for us, despite our efficiency in the glorious ninja arts," Lee added solemnly, standing up from the corpse.

"Whether or not it bodes well is the least of our worries at the moment," Neji interrupted with a wave of his hand, taking the photos from Lee and pocketing them. "What we need to concentrate on now is getting to Suna, and quickly. The sooner the Kazekage receives these photos-- as vital information-- the sooner we could be to solving this and getting back to Konoha. Naruto, I want a Katon jutsu to incinerate these bodies, and then we'll be on our way. Same groups as before. Double-pace."

"What a slave driver," TenTen murmured jokingly to Sakura, nudging her in the ribs.

But Sakura was silent, her masked face revealing nothing. What Sai had said-- that the main criminal here was 'either a psychopath or a cunning, emotionless bastard'. Lee had been right… it didn't bode well, not at all. Something gristly and dark fought to take shape in the back of her mind, terror spreading from a knot in her neck like disease. As they started off again, Naruto's Katon justu properly completed, Sakura shook her head. It wouldn't do to get superstitious here-- not on a mission as important as this. All her intuition would have to go out the window for now, until it was safe to say otherwise.

_But at the same time_, she reflected as she took her place at the back with Neji, what if she was right? What if her intuitions and combination of woman and shinobi instinct were serving her the truth on a silver platter right under her nose? Surely that would be worse than being made a fool of.

_I don't want any more deaths._ The Kazekage had made that perfectly clear. How was she to live with herself if she had been right all along?

She glanced at the stoic ANBU captain next to her and made a decision.

The petal-haired woman moved to the left, going along in-step with him. "Neji-san, may I speak with you?"

He grunted an affirmative, his mind obviously otherwise occupied.

"I have a… a rather bad feeling about this mission, Captain," she said uneasily, slightly disconcerted at his lack of interest.

"I've told you already that personal and emotional 'bad feelings' have no place on a battlefield, Haruno," he reprimanded her sternly, not looking at her.

Sakura's face flushed. "I know, I know," she said hastily, "and yet… well, I feel like I have to tell you. What if my intuition's not lying to me, and people end up dying because of it? I don't want that on my-- or your-- conscience."

Neji let out a stifled but long-suffering sigh. "Go on."

Sakura paused, looking away for a moment, paranoia creeping into her senses. What was wrong with her? "I feel… something… darkly and horribly and inexplicably recognizable about this. Maybe even something from a deep and distant memory, I don't know. But it all seems vaguely familiar, like a really scary nightmare you've already had once before. Like déjà vu, or something of that sort."

"Haruno, I don't have time for similes. If you would get on with it?"

But she sensed his interest and moved with it, trying to pique his thoughts to her point of view. "Well… I don't really know how to say this, Neji-san. Captain. But it feels to me like I could figure this whole thing out really, really quickly if I just have time to think."

Neji looked at her, his attention now fully captured. "Time is the one thing we thoroughly lack, Haruno," the squad leader answered quietly. "Is there any possible way you could… _recount_… the answer to this potential disaster with the time we're given?"

"I don't know, Neji-san, and that's why I'm concerned. I'm sure that once we finally get it, it'll come back to me in a rush… but I know that then it might be too late. What I'm asking for is complete and utter understanding. I want the privilege to know everything the Kazekage and the Hokage tell you as ANBU captain-- I know it's a lot to ask for, and that it's terribly bigheaded of me to ask it, but I need you to understand. _I know this._ I just need to remember _how_ I know."

Neji let out a stream of air in a whoosh of current. "Understood. I'll grant you all your information. Just…"

He stopped suddenly, and grasped her arm in a totally unfamiliar gesture of familiarity. Of companionship.

"Like the Kazekage said, Haruno: no more deaths, all right? Let's try to figure this out as quickly as humanly possible." He paused, as if weighing what he was about to say for its repercussions.

In fact, he was probably doing just that.

"What I'm trying to say is, Haruno, is that you are not only in danger for being on an S-rank mission for the Kazekage as an ANBU member. This is personal for both you and Naruto, and even the Godaime. You, personally, have been threatened, and so I want you to be on your guard _every step you take._ These people are looking for you-- and you are _invaluable_ to me."

Five seconds after the words were out, Neji thanked whatever gods were up there he was wearing a mask. "I, um… I meant… the team. Of course. You're invaluable to the team-- as the only medic, you're extraordinarily important."

Sakura said nothing, but from the corners of her face the mask revealed, Neji could guess pretty accurately at the amused smile that was surely curving her mouth. "Oh, yes, I knew you meant that," she said rapidly, obviously nearly as flustered as him. "Yes, yes. Medics _are_ invaluable, especially at an ANBU level. Yeah."

"Exactly." Neji cleared his throat. "Ano… go ahead. I'll use Byakugan on this area and make sure we're not being followed. I'll catch up soon."

"Right. Don't get killed or anything." She smiled slightly behind the mask, and Neji relaxed, confident that that particular awkward moment had dissipated. As she turned to start moving again, though, she whipped her head back to face him. "Arigatou. That… ah, that meant a lot to me. Not just the 'invaluable' thing, but… you listened to me. A woman's intuitional ravings. Not many ANBU captains would do that."

Neji stayed quiet for a moment, but then tilted his head so he was looking at the sky. It was midmorning now, he guessed-- the sun's position indicated so, and the birds had resumed their melodic and perpetual chirping now that the sounds of battle had died down. The air was warm and carried a sweet scent of pine and forest. Inhaling deeply, Neji lifted his hand, a gesture for her to go.

"You're not the only one with a bad feeling about this mission, Haruno."

---

Author's Note: Whoo! Sorry for the long wait-- this ankle really isn't working for me, and it takes me double the usual time to get things done. But I hope you enjoyed this chapter... I loved writing it. We finally see some Neji-Sakura action in this one-- and Neji's flustered! Haha.

--Dejeuner


	4. Rueful Dazzle

**Nascence**

---

_IV: Rueful Dazzle_

---

Shikamaru had never really liked Sunakagure.

It was hot. It was dusty. Whenever the wind blew (which was twenty-four/seven), sand flew into his hair, his eyes, his mouth, and made him feel dirty and gritty to the very bone. The buildings were boring and looked exactly the same: identical, round, sand-colored little huts with the tiniest of variations: a window box of some freakishly deadly desert plant here, a sign above the door with a bloody smear on it there. It was a town of paranoid conformists, and he hated them for it. What kind of Kazekage-- or father, for that matter-- inserted a demon into his son to make him a weapon for his village? The whole place was filled with freaks.

Plus the fact that Temari was there, and she was the bossiest woman he knew, aside from his mother.

It was funny, the way he always got mixed up with that type of woman.

Or damnable. Either one.

In any case, trudging through a hot, sandy desert was never his idea of fun. And even though they had been met at the gates by the older sand siblings (Kankurou had given him a warning glare, Temari a wink) and escorted formally through the city as Konoha ANBU, people to be respected and feared, and even though Gaara had welcomed them as warmly as he possibly could, and _even though_ he was given leave by Neji to hang around with Temari for an hour after their meeting with said Kazekage, Shikamaru was feeling troubled.

And, of course, Temari's Shikamaru-is-sulking-again-radar picked that fact up rather quickly.

"Shikamaru, if you sigh one more time I'm going to show you stars. Three, to be exact."

The Konoha strategist eyed his semi-girlfriend's giant fan with wary eyes and shifted his gaze to her face. She was looking at him disapprovingly with those gleaming dark eyes, her spiked blonde hair reflecting her irritation. "I'm not that boring, am I?" she continued, putting her hands on her hips.

Uh-oh. Bad sign.

Shikamaru raced to cover up: "No, no, Temari, no. You're not boring at all. Yare, yare… I just need to think about this mission. It's getting more troublesome by the minute."

Temari sighed and placed her hand lightly on his arm with a gentleness she rarely exposed to anyone else. "Look, we only have an hour together-- less now, actually-- before you have to get back to your Hyuuga captain," she replied slowly, moving her thumb up and down his forearm. "Why don't you stop being a shinobi for a couple moments and start being… my date?"

Shikamaru looked at her, surprised; it was shocking for a woman as perpetually businesslike as Temari to be talking to him like this. Asking him to forget his duties.

As Neji passed by, though, with TenTen and Lee laughing behind him, Shikamaru relaxed slightly. If his captain was using this hour of free time to converse (or ignore) his teammates, why not him? _Leave it alone for a while_, he told himself. _Asuma always did say you worked too hard to figure problems out the moment they were presented to you._ With that thought in mind, the shadow-user pushed all strategic and deep thought away and took Temari's hand, pulling her up from their seat at the café. He looked away, voice gruff, and said, "Wherever you want to go, then."

Temari squealed happily, reminding him slightly of Ino, and kissed him on the cheek.

…_this whole 'relaxed' thing might just be worth it._

---

Despite the way he'd looked walking down the street with Lee and TenTen, Neji was most certainly _not_ relaxed. Behind his unmasked face and creased brow, his mind ticked furiously, whirring over possibilities and suspicions. Sakura's uncanny, unplumbed knowledge of the situation at hand had left him positively exhausted, and in the worst way. His mind was slowing, he felt it, and his scowl deepened. A couple Suna civilians, selling exotic fruits from hand-build wooden carts, backed away from him, sufficiently cowed, and he felt a sort of vindictive pleasure at the sight. _I need to bounce ideas off of someone. I need to talk to the Kazekage… alone._

No, not alone-- Sakura's intuition, however doubtful, needed to be fed as much information as possible. If she could figure out this mission before it even really started, there was a much lower fatality rate, and a much higher chance of getting back to Konoha within the next week, where he would devote his leftover time to training and ridding his thoughts of all things pink-haired and green-eyed.

…which was not what he had been planning to think at all.

Stopping so suddenly Lee ran into his back, Neji turned to his teammates. "I've got to go see someone to discuss the fine points of our mission," he rapidly answered. "Please enjoy yourselves until the hour is up. I'll meet you at the Kazekage's building later, ne?"

TenTen nodded. "Ja, Neji. Keep out of trouble!"

Lee smiled a blinding goodbye, and Neji nodded to them in farewell, taking off as fast as he could without arousing suspicion. If he was Sakura, where would he go in Suna? She would be with Naruto and Sai, of course, probably ordering them around--

Of course.

_Clothes shopping._

Shaking his head with distaste and amazement at the consistency of the female brain, Neji headed to the main streets, where the city's largest shopping district was conveniently located. Shivering slightly at the hordes of female Sand ninja, Neji deftly navigated his way through the crowds, searching for a telltale flash of pink or blonde hair.

"Neji!"

There was no mistaking that booming, hyperactive voice. Neji turned on the spot to see Naruto and Sai racing towards him almost desperately, with Sakura behind them, rummaging through a bag.

"You've got to save us," Naruto pleaded once he reached the stoic prodigy, his hands clasped as though in prayer. "She's been taking us to these stores-"

"Buying stuff that makes us sick to look at," Sai agreed, shaking his head.

"It's horrible," Naruto finished. "Please, take her away… I love Sakura-chan dearly, but if I see another-"

The Kyuubi container shut up quickly as Sakura approached, a smile on her face. "Oh, you guys should see what I got!" she crowed. "Neji-san, I thought you were with Lee and TenTen. Three's a crowd once more?" she asked, smiling slightly at him.

He smirked a bit at the opposite gender's predictability. "Sort of. I was hoping to meet you so we could visit the Kazekage early and talk for a while about what he expects from us. You asked to hear whatever he had to say… why not hear it from his ears?"

"Wonderful idea!" Naruto boomed before Sakura even opened her mouth, pushing the pink-haired girl towards Neji. "Brilliant. Seriously, Neji, you are a genius. We'll see you later, Sakura-chan."

A quick goodbye from Sai, and the two were off, shooting Neji victorious and grateful glances.

"Um… ja ne?" Sakura said weakly from next to him, gazing at the two running men in front of her.

Neji started off again, this time at a slower pace, smirk still firm on his features. "After putting them through the kind of torture they conveyed to me, I'm surprised you look so shocked."

Sakura looked at him confusedly, nonplussed. "Torture? They were complaining about our trip?"

"Not many men enjoy looking for skirts, Sakura-san," Neji replied with a small smile.

She blinked, then crowed with laughter, holding up her bag of goodies. "Oh, Neji… you rely too much on stereotypes." Sakura opened the bag and withdrew a series of complicated gadgets. "This is all shinobi equipment: unbreakable vials, a small bowl for mixing antidotes and poison… I even found a set of new, double-bladed kunai for fifty percent off!" Her eyes were alight. "You didn't think I was _clothes_ shopping, did you?"

Neji choked out a cough-laugh that vaguely resembled the sound of someone being strangled. "Hah… never?"

She laughed some more, a full-body laugh that shook her shoulders. "Ahh, I can't blame you or beat you up for that, I suppose. I guess it's a woman thing to look at clothes… I mean, even then… I was looking at some chakra gloves, too."

She considered looking at chakra gloves _clothing shopping_?

This woman was becoming both more clear and more of a mystery to him every day.

---

"Enter."

Neji pushed open the double doors at the sound of the Kazekage's voice: stiff, worried, pained. Sakura detected telltale signs of stress and frowned as they entered his office. The red-haired Kage was sitting at his desk, writing furiously on a scroll. He cursed under his breath and looked up. "Hyuuga. Sakura-san?"

At his questioning, vaguely threatening look, Neji nodded. "She is to be filled in on all matters discussed here."

Gaara's frostiness multiplied tenfold. "By what decree?"

Neji frowned. "Mine. As ANBU captain."

The Kazekage looked at Neji for a moment as if sizing him up, then nodded as the captain had done before. "Yes. Sakura-san, Hyuuga, please sit."

They both drew up chairs and did as asked. Sakura stayed silent as Neji went over their trip: uneventful, except for the rogues, and they were easily defeated. But they had had some photographs on their person that created a large amount of evidence that they were hired to murder the two late chuunin.

Neji pulled out the glossy eight-by-ten picture and passed it over the desk to Gaara. "Sakura-san recognized them. They _are_ the murdered chuunin, are they not?"

Gaara's lips pressed together in an unclassifiable emotion. "Yes, they are. Arigatou. Is there anything else you'd like to report?"

"They had money on their person," Sakura reported quietly, holding up the stack of bills and leather pouches full to the brim and clinking with coins. "We figured it was escape money-- quite a bit just to take out two regular-level chuunin. Somebody obviously had money to spend and no desire to use it."

The Suna leader's frown deepened imperceptibly as he examined the money. "Counterfeit?"

Neji shook his head, looking thoroughly exhausted. "I checked. It's all genuine, every bit of it."

Gaara scowled and let out a noise similar to an angered animal, pounding his fist in a Tsunade-esque manner.

_It must be a Kage thing_, Sakura thought with a wry smile.

"This is getting worse, Hyuuga, and not better," Gaara snapped, but not unkindly. His face showed signs of weariness rather than cruelty. "Is there anyone on your team that has an idea about this? That Nara guy is a strategic specialist, ne? Why hasn't he figured anything out by now?"

"With all due respect, Kazekage-sama, we've only officially been on this mission for a little more than a day," Neji answered, his voice reflecting equal tiredness. "One of the reasons Sakura-san is here is to feed her memory."

"Her memory?" the Kazekage inquired rather disbelievingly, turning to face Sakura. "What does that have to do with this?"

"Kazekage-sama…" Sakura swallowed. It was one thing to tell her ANBU captain-- it was another entirely to voice juvenile emotions to a Kage. "I have a rather strange feeling about this mission. I feel like I know it, like I've done it before. Like… back in my memory, in the way far-out depths of my mind, I can solve this by remembering it. Everything seems so clear, and then at the same time so muddled. Like a door shuts in my face every time I get close." She paused and flushed as she realized she'd been rambling. "Gomen. I just… I don't know. I realize it sounds ridiculous."

Gaara regarded her silently for a moment, hands folded in front of his blue Kazekage's robes. "I believe you," he said suddenly, looking down at his desk and stacking papers. "I believe you. Especially since whoever is behind this seems to have a particular interest in you and Uzumaki Naruto. Because you're… _friends_… of mine, or for some other totally different reason, I have no idea." He paused at a knock on the door, and some familiar voices that signified that Kankurou, Temari, Shikamaru, Naruto, Sai, TenTen, and Lee were all behind the door. "One moment," the Kazekage called, and then turned back to Sakura. "I want you to work on this memory lead, mostly because it's the only one we have… do you understand?"

"Hai." Sakura nodded confidently, jade eyes on the Kazekage.

Equally green eyes stared back for a moment, shifted to Neji, and then Gaara sighed again, rubbing his forehead with the heel of his hand. "Come in."

The rest of the team stumbled forward in a tripping wrangle of bodies, laughing and chatting. The Konoha group pulled up chairs as Sakura and Neji had done and sat in front of the Kazekage's desk, while Temari and Kankurou went behind it and watched the conversation from the opposite side of the room. Neji straightened in his seat, all business once more, and opened his mouth to speak-

"Gaara!" Naruto cheerfully smacked Gaara on the back, his trademark grin sparkling nearly as much as Lee's. "Good to see you, buddy. How's li-"

An icy glare from Gaara caused Naruto to falter.

"Well, um… chat later, then."

Sakura stifled a giggle and Neji rolled his eyes to the heavens for patience. "Anyway. Kazekage-sama. What exactly are our duties?"

Gaara, stupendously recovered from Naruto's outburst, folded his hands on the desk once more and regarded all of them as one. "You've come in haste-- I have no jobs for you until tomorrow afternoon. Until then, you'll be on call, but otherwise free to wander about the city. Later tomorrow, however, I will need Sakura-san and Hyuuga to examine the bodies with Temari for any clues our people have missed. A highly-trained medic and a Byakugan will reveal everything, I believe. I will need four of you on guard duty until stated otherwise at the training facility where the murdered chuunin had just finished training… in case the killer or killers decide to strike again. Captain, I'll let you decide who should do that. Your strategist will work on defense and counterattack plans with Kankurou, and you will meet with me here at five o'clock sharp to discuss your findings for the day. After that, I'll call on you as I see fit… most likely for guard duty or street patrol. The civilians have no knowledge of the murders, and I'd like to keep it that way."

Shikamaru cleared his throat. "Where'll we be staying?"

Temari raised a hand to answer. "You'll have lodgings inside this building for extra protection and access to any records you might need. The last four rooms on the third floor."

"Won't Konoha ANBU on your streets make civilians suspicious?" Sai asked calmly.

"Maybe, but certainly less so if there's a cadaver found on the main road," Kankurou said pointedly from the window.

Gaara nodded his agreement. "Fatalities are not an option. I expect you all to understand that and prevent them-- to the very best of your human ability-- to stop them from occurring. Understood?"

"Hai." They spoke in unison. One voice. One team.

"Dismissed."

As the squad walked away, Gaara frowned. "Naruto."

"Eh?" The blue-eyed blonde wheeled around.

Gaara grimaced, as if he had just tasted something horribly nasty.

"You wanted to, er… 'chat'?"

---

Sakura sighed, drawing her arms behind her head in a languid stretch at rubbed at her eyes, yawning extraordinarily widely for someone with such a small mouth.

Neji smirked. "Tired?"

She shot him a mock-resentful look, silently thanking him for the light topic of conversation. "Of course. You made me trudge through this blisteringly hot desert in less than two days. It takes a lot out of a girl."

"A girl, not a kunoichi, ne?"

She smiled at him, her face surprisingly agile after her previously groggy look. "Exactly. You're getting it."

From next to Sakura, TenTen giggled. "It's about time. It took me four years to teach him how to properly talk to a girl without mentioning kunai or shuriken tactics."

Sakura let out a laugh. "I can imagine that." The two girls stepped ahead, walking together. "You really did have a handful of a team, didn't you?"

TenTen groaned. "You have no idea. Them and Gai-sensei… it was almost too much for a girl to handle. No wonder I grew up such a tomboy."

Sakura smiled slightly. "The Rookie Nine and you guys-- we sure have changed a lot, ne?"

TenTen nodded almost wistfully. "Don't you sometimes wish we were twelve and thirteen again?" she asked. "I mean, I know it was a hard time for you… but don't you miss that innocence? That sureness that everything will be okay?"

The pink-haired kunoichi next to her nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess I do. But at the same time, that innocence was the byproduct of always being protected, don't you think?"

"It's hard to grow up," TenTen summarized with a smile.

Lee bounded ahead of them and faced the two women, walking backwards. "We are still in the full bloom of our youth!" he reassured them with a glass-shattering smile. "Do not fret!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "How did you stand him?" he asked Neji dully.

"I didn't," the coffee-haired ANBU replied smoothly, grinning a bit. "Half our training ground is decimated from my lack of patience."

Sakura giggled. "I can see that."

Sai poked her on the shoulder as the group exited the building. "Ugly."

"What?"

"Why is everyone acting like we're not on an S-class mission? Like… like it's dickless and you and me in Konoha, going to dinner or something?"

"After a tense situation, people want to lighten the mood and relax each other's emotions," Sakura explained softly, "by making carefree conversation. You understand?"

Sai gave her his signature smile. "Aa. Arigatou."

Shikamaru regarded her curiously. "You act like his mother."

Sakura smiled slightly. "We're a family. I have double-duty on the female roles."

The group all shared a rippling chuckle as they wandered throughout the streets, but Neji was silent, only giving a rare smile. _There's a lot behind her witty remarks than most people get_, he realized suddenly. _She's amazing with words._

Lee and TenTen shared a look of mutual attraction that made Neji almost want to gag, and then they giggled simultaneously. "Lee," TenTen announced, "is going to take me to dinner. We'll meet up with you guys later."

Shikamaru eyed the building behind him rather nervously. "I've got, ah… business to attend to back in the Kazekage's building."

Sai rolled his eyes while Sakura let out a "sure".

As the three departed, Sakura smiled brightly. "Looks like it's just us. Or are you guys planning on leaving me, too?"

Sai opened his mouth "N-" and then closed it tightly, eyeing Neji with a shock of understanding that Neji wasn't even sure _he_ understood. "Gomen, Ugly. I'm going to look around for a library. Research." With his first-ever genuine smirk, Sai saluted them and ran off, quickly rounding a corner and disappearing from sight.

Neji frowned. "Does he always do that?"

Sakura laughed. "Sometimes. His research is important to him."

As they ambled along the streets together, Neji noticed with curiosity and a bit of shock-induced horror that people were looking at them. And not just "Konoha ANBU" looks-- wary, full of intense worry-- but regular, fleeting smiles and glances that screamed "young couple".

This was _not_ optimal.

But at the same time, what was he supposed to do?

"What's his research?" he asked gruffly as they passed street vendors hawking their wares, shouting gleefully at them to buy something.

Sakura stopped by one of them and inspected a necklace, a silver rope with a diamond-studded silver bar dangling from the bottom. "He's interested in human emotions," Sakura answered, "because he's been denied them so long. He tries to study regular human behavior so he can become more… well, more human."

Neji stopped with her, nodding. "Aa. Nobody knows much of his history, do they?"

Sakura shook her head. "He hasn't found the need to tell us yet. This is pretty. How much?" she inquired of the man behind the stall.

He smiled at her, a toothless grin that stretched his whole face. "Ah, for you? Next to nothing."

As he named the price, though, Sakura smiled weakly. "Sorry, that's a bit higher than my budget allows," she said apologetically. "Maybe another time."

"Surely your boyfriend would like to give you a gift on your trip here?" the man smiled at her ANBU tattoo. "Even kunoichi deserve something pretty, ne?"

Sakura flushed, but Neji had already experienced the 'young couple' vibe from other civilians-- he pulled out money from his pocket and set it down with a practiced, Hyuuga-patented, polite smile. "Indeed she does," he answered in a low voice, giving the man the money.

"Neji-san!" Sakura stuttered. "No, no that's perfectly fine, I don't need it…"

"Haruno, do me a favor," Neji said dully as he picked up the necklace with a grateful smile to the owner and started walking away.

She hop/skipped after him. "Aa?"

He faced her and tied the necklace around her slim neck. "Shut up."

Sakura blinked, then smiled at him. "Arigatou, Neji-san."

He flapped a hand. "It was my pleasure. You feeling hungry?"

Still smiling, Sakura nodded. "Yeah, a bit. D'you want to have dinner together?"

Neji swore he felt his heart go on cardiac arrest mode.

"Erm… sure?"

Sakura laughed. "Don't sound so excited." But she boldly looped her arm through his and led him rather forcefully through the teeming crowd. "How about this place?" she asked, pointing to a sushi restaurant. "Last time I was in Suna I came here. It's good stuff. D'you like sushi?"

Neji nodded, still a bit disconcerted. "Ah… hai."

"Good." Giving him a smile that nearly made his knees buckle (SO un-Hyuuga he could have killed himself), Sakura dragged him inside and sat down neatly at a bar-like area. Neji slowly seated himself next to her, as if he was afraid it was all a dream and about to poof away at any moment.

Sakura gave him a reassuring grin. "Don't worry, Neji-san, the seat's not going to hurt you. I promise. I'll beat it up if it does."

The dark-haired man rolled his eyes, trying unsuccessfully to swallow a smile. "I'm not sure the owner of the restaurant would appreciate that."

Green eyes sparkled. "Well, he'd just have to live with it. I'm a kunoichi-- beating up is rather a specialty of mine. Ask Sai or Naruto."

Neji chuckled and took a sip of the tea their waitress had brought them not five seconds ago. "I don't have to… when they walk into Ichiraku with black and blue as their skin tones, there are no questions asked."

Sakura giggled. "I should probably stop doing that. Hinata might hurt me." They both shared a laugh at the image of gentle Hinata hurting anyone but an enemy, then spent a comfortable moment simply looking at each other.

_This is strange_, Neji thought vaguely as he tilted his head, taking in more of her face. _She's not pretty. But she's beautiful. How does that work?_

"Beauty's in the eye of the beholder," she murmured.

Neji snapped to attention. "Wh- what?"

Sakura blinked. "Hm? Oh…" She giggled self-consciously, flushing a brilliant red. "Did I say that out loud? Gomen, my mind was wandering."

He raised an eyebrow. She had looked at him and said something about beauty? How strange.

…

_Wait…_

But Neji didn't have ample time to chase after that thought-- their food was placed in front of them, and Sakura was starting to eat. "Mm," she mumbled appreciatively, swallowing with a smile. "Never fails."

They ate in an easy silence for a very long time, but Neji found something strange about their meal. He found himself stealing glances at her, taking her in, absorbing all of the little things: the way she pressed the sushi against her plate to stop the soy sauce from dripping on her; the way she clicked her chopsticks before deciding which piece to select; the way she made little stick figures in the surplus soy sauce on her plate when she'd finished. And ever so often, he saw her stealing glances at _him_, presumably doing the same things he was.

_How strange._

At the end of the meal, Sakura smiled at him. "Good, huh?"

He nodded, taking another sip of tea. "Very. What's on your mind?"

Sakura glanced up from her soy sauce stick figures. "Nani? How'd you know I was thinking of something?"

He shrugged a shoulder carelessly. "Same way I heard the Hokage coming at us. Perception-- using my senses."

She shook her head bemusedly at him. "You really are something," she conceded, grinning slightly. "I was just thinking of Naruto."

Neji was surprised at how much this angered him. Why _wouldn't_ she have feelings for Naruto? Of course, she was obviously disappointed she hadn't said anything to the blonde-- he and Hinata were now very much a couple. But besides that, it was perfectly logical for Sakura to fall in love with the Kyuubi container. She'd known him since they were very little, after all. And wasn't that all it took for TenTen and Lee to get together? Ino and Chouji?

But Neji was internally fuming for some reason, no matter where logical thought took him. "What about Naruto?" he forced out through gritted teeth.

Sakura, rather taken aback at his new, clipped tone, raised an eyebrow. "Just about how he somehow manages to change everyone he meets for the better."

…

He might as well have the word 'fool' stamped on his forehead in place of the hitai-ate. Neji groaned silently and willed his heart to stop thumping like crazy. "Oh."

"Yeah. Isn't it amazing, how he does that? Everyone's changed by him. You, me, Gaara, Kiba, Hinata, Tsunade-shishou… absolutely everyone." She shrugged. "It just makes me wonder sometimes, you know?"

"It's not just him," Neji blurted, trying to cover up his obvious resentment from before. "You two together… you're a combination. Everyone he changes is comforted to this change by you, or vice versa. You're a team in that respect, as well as a genin-chosen one."

Sakura regarded him curiously. "Those are nice words, Neji. But what have I done to change someone?"

Neji rolled his lavender eyes to the ceiling. "You changed that Chiyo person from a prejudiced old woman to someone loving and accepting enough to give her life for the Kazekage. The last time Lee proclaimed his undying love for you, you whacked him and sent him to TenTen, starting something that I knew should have happened in the beginning. Who else should I mention, Haruno? Sai in opening up to people, Ino in being less conceited, Hinata in becoming more bold? Yeah, Naruto had a hand in those, too, but you were a large factor." He shook his head. "I don't know why you always put yourself down."

She looked at him, startled, and Neji feared he'd been too harsh until her face split into a wide smile and she nearly tackled him in a hug. He awkwardly patted her back. "Old habits die hard," she answered, her voice muffled by his shirt. "Arigatou."

Sakura pulled away, and Neji looked at her impassively through burning red cheeks. "No… no problem." He coughed. "Shall we go, then?" His companion laughed and pulled out money, but Neji stopped her. "My treat."

Sakura poked him. "Chauvinist."

"It's the Hyuuga upbringing to be a gentleman."

"So much a gentleman that you let your teammate land a punch on you?"

"It was a _kick_, and shut up," he snapped as they walked out the door and into the streets. The sun was low in the sky, almost set, and the streets were thinning; many people were yawning and walking home.

"Don't you glare at me like that, Hyuuga, or I'll-"

"You'll…?"

"I'll tell Shikamaru you have pictures of him hidden under your mattress."

He snorted. "You do that, and I'll tell Kankurou you wished you were one of his puppets."

Sakura pouted. "That's not fair."

"All's fair in love and war," Neji quoted.

She stopped and looked at him. "And which is this?"

_Fuck_, she thought immediately, _fuckfuckfuck. I cannot believe I just said that. He's going to think I'm… I'm madly in love with him, or something!_

_**And that's bad because…?**_

_Because I'm NOT madly in love with him?_

The fact that her Inner Self didn't say anything was less than comforting.

Neji stared at her, and then, on a sudden flight of fancy, leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Which do you want it to become, Sakura?"

His breath tickled her earlobe, hot and gentle. Her name fairly rolled off his tongue, like water off rocks. He had a gentle but firm grip on her upper arm, and when she breathed in, she could smell the mint scent of his hair, surprisingly sweet, and his own scent… something she mentally classified as 'real'. Sweet and real.

She was surprised at the effect his words had on her-- she felt her knees get wobbly and her hands involuntarily went up, as if needing something to ground herself on.

Neji himself was beyond shocked at both what he had done and how she was responding. Of their own accord, his hands found themselves curling around her own. "This," he said softly, "is a war."

"Yes," Sakura answered, looking straight at him. "A war."

Neji nodded, as if reassuring both of them, and then, suddenly, planted a soft, chaste kiss on her forehead. "Let's go inside."

Sakura looked past his shoulder… they were directly outside of the Kazekage's building. Nodding dumbly, she locked eyes with him one more time.

Something akin to an electric shock jolted throughout her body, and she quickly eased past him. "G'night."

"Goodnight."

He watched her jog into the building and sighed to himself, putting his hands on his eyes as if to block out what he'd just done.

…what _had_ he just done?

Neji groaned. He wasn't the flirting kind of guy. Hell, he wasn't even the associate-with-any-female-but-TenTen-and-Hinata kind of guy. And here he was, _kissing_ the Hokage's former apprentice-- on the forehead, yeah, which was probably less than Naruto had even done-- but kissing nonetheless.

This mission was getting more complicated by the minute.

And it didn't get any better when he was opening the door to the room he was supposed to share with Lee and found instead two _very_ angry brothers of a certain Haruno Sakura.

---

Author's Note: Haha, I'm loving this chapter, especially the end. I guess we'll see what Neji's interrogation was like next chapter-- which, by the way, will probably be up by Friday, at the latest. I'm going to work on a oneshot or two, but I'm pumped about this story!

The blue review button loves you--

--Dejeuner


	5. Philandering Spotlight

**Nascence**

---

_V: Philandering Spotlight_

---

"Er… you two should be resting," Neji said rather lamely.

Sai stared.

Naruto glared.

Neji cowered.

The blonde in the room narrowed cerulean-blue eyes. "We saw what you did to our Sakura-chan outside of the building, Hyuuga. Windows are marvelous things."

Neji thought it was a bit out-of-character for Naruto to be using words like 'marvelous', but then, it was out-of-character for him to be frightened out of his wits, as well.

He decided not to mention it.

Instead, he cleared his throat, something he'd been doing a lot lately in awkward situations. Of which he was becoming very prone. "What exactly did you see me do to _your Sakura-chan_?" he inquired calmly.

"We saw you kiss her," Sai deadpanned.

Neji rolled his eyes. "I kissed her on the forehead. I do the same to Hinata, and other female relatives."

Naruto's eyes didn't waver. "She's not a relative of yours."

"She's a good friend," he protested soothingly. "I've seen _you_ kiss her on the lips."

Sai stood in front of him, hands on hips in a frighteningly Sakura-like manner. "We're her brothers," he said, with no hint of a smile. "We can do that. You've only really started talking to her during this mission."

Neji frowned. "She is easy to make friends with."

They were silent for a long time, and Neji feared he'd said something terribly wrong. He could picture his gravestone now: _Hyuuga Neji. Pissed off two older brothers. "Never go near Haruno Sakura"._

With a mutual glance of understanding, the two faced him again. "Alright, Hyuuga," Naruto began, "we've decided to let you off with a warning. But we'll be watching you."

"Wonderful," Neji rasped, pushing past them. "Now get to sleep or I'll demote you to genin again."

As he closed the door, Naruto's voice boomed at him: "You hurt Sakura-chan and I'll break your neck!"

Neji slid down the door and mentally rehearsed a quick prayer of thanks.

--

Fact: Hyuuga Neji does not scare easily.

And yet Sakura noted with mixed curiosity and amusement that as the group exited the Kazekage's building later the next afternoon to go to their respective duties, he distinctly shied away from Sai and Naruto. Why? She had no idea. But it was a funny thing to see, and she resolved to ask him about it later… if she could work up the courage.

Sakura pondered about the night before as he, Temari, and herself scuffed through the dusty streets of Sunakagure. _He kissed me on the forehead. Like a brother. But then, when he whispered to me… 'what do you want it to become'… great gods, my knees went to jelly. It's insane. I haven't done that since Sasuke complimented me on the way I threw shuriken._ Sakura felt frightened. If her woman's intuition wasn't leading her astray and was telling her the truth: that she had a tiny crush on her tall, broad-shouldered companion-- then she was heading down a road she had long ago stuck a stop sign on. There was absolutely no way she would let herself turn into another sniveling, obsessive fan girl.

_But those eyes…_

Temari interrupted her train of thought with a wave of her hand. "This is the autopsy building," she announced gravely, leading them inside. She spoke quietly with someone behind the counter of the sterilized white room for a moment, then directed them towards the stairwell. "I don't want to be a burden to either of you-- I'm as much a coroner as Gaara's a stripper. It's the fourth floor, room five-oh-two. Come down with your results when you're finished."

Sakura smiled thinly at Temari's stripper comment, but her stomach churned as she and Neji silently mounted the stairs. She was going to see the actual corpses of her and Naruto's look-alikes. Bracing herself as they climbed the final set of stairs and pushing away thoughts of weak knees and strong shoulders, Sakura took a deep breath.

Neji glanced at her, frowning, but led her down the hallway until they reached the right room. He pushed open the door for her, and she walked under his arm, heading towards the sheet-covered forms on beds in the middle of the room.

Sakura took a moment to compose herself, waited for Neji to stand next to her. They both pushed their masks to the top of their heads, and then unveiled the first body.

She gasped; it was Naruto.

Or, rather, Naruto's look-alike.

But the sight was disconcerting, nonetheless-- clear blue eyes, blonde hair, tanned skin, whisker marks cut by kunai into the poor boy's cheeks. On his chest, deep gashes spread the length of his torso, one going from next to mid-thigh. Sakura closed her eyes for a moment while Neji activated his Byakugan, looking over the body with nary an expression on his face.

Willing herself to draw from his vast stores of courage, Sakura opened her eyes again and began examining the cadaver. The face was normal but for the kunai whisker marks-- nothing seemed to have been done to him above that or below the torso cuts. She focused on the middle of the chuunin's body, where all the cuts were. "This," she said slowly, "was done by a fire-charged katana."

"Hm?" Neji walked to face her. "How do you know?"

Sakura pointed to the edges of the wounds. "It's obviously Katon-charged… look at the sides of the cuts. They're all burnt and blistered. And I know it's a katana because of how the cuts are made. You hold a katana like this, right?" She demonstrated the familiar grip. "When you slash it down" -she did so- "you're moving your wrist in a rather awkward motion. It takes an expert swordsman to do it for a long time, like this one cut is, from neck to thigh. Any other sword or weapon would give out or not go that deep."

Neji nodded. "So we'll need a list of anyone that uses fire, and is a master swordsman."

Sakura groaned. "There are hundreds of those."

Her companion's lips twisted in a grimace. "True. Move on to the next body-- we may be able to find something there." Sakura, nodding, hardly thinking, pulled the sheet off the next bed.

The next moment, she was turned around, one hand on her mouth and another on her stomach.

Seeing herself, even a poorly-done look-alike of herself, in that condition… disemboweled. Lifeless. Staring. It was horrifying. Bile welled in her throat, and she forced to keep from vomiting, rocking herself on her heels. To her horror, a dry sob escaped her throat. _Unbelievable._

Warm arms encircled her from behind.

Sakura immediately turned and wrapped her arms around Neji's shoulders, pressing her face into his chest. She wasn't crying, but her body was shaking, convulsing in frightful tremors. Neji held her tight, both to calm her and to mask his own jitters-- he was shivering, he felt it. Those green eyes, so like but so unlike Sakura's own… just staring up at him, without the usual sparkle. Without life. He buried his face into her rose tresses and inhaled deeply, her citrus scent anchoring him back to the real world. He put his chin lightly on her head and held her there for a long time, stroking her hair, gently moving his body from side to side.

Gradually, her tremors slowed and stilled. She lifted shaken eyes to him and nodded slightly, her face paler than normal. No roses bloomed at her cheeks today. She took a breath. "I can do this."

Neji hesitated. "Sakura-san, if you-"

She shook her head. "I can _do_ this."

And he nodded.

Padding carefully towards the corpse, Sakura inhaled through her mouth and focused her eyes on below the late chuunin's head, focusing on her body. There were no unusual marks except for her disembowelment, and even that was done perfectly… surgically, in fact. "Whoever did this had a basic knowledge of surgical procedures," she murmured.

"And, apparently, some kind of a heart," Neji added.

Sakura looked up. "What makes you say that? This is a brutal murder."

The Byakugan chakra veins throbbed slightly. "You were avoiding the head. She has significant bruising at the back of her neck, and an almost fractured skull. Someone used a pressure point at first. She probably woke after that, and then the killer had to use a permanent painkiller… he or she knocked her out with a blunt object. The hilt of a katana, according to these indents… and the way the cracks throughout her skull spread." He tilted his own head, getting a better look. "Judging from the direction of the fracture, the person must have hit her-- from the murderer's standpoint-- with the motion from the top right to bottom left. A direct hit." Neji looked up. "Whoever it was didn't want this woman in any pain."

Sakura frowned. "But those rogues…"

"I know," Neji agreed, deactivating the Byakugan. "None of them had katana, or any type of long, thin sword. And none of them probably had mercy, either."

Sakura nodded. "Exactly. But why did they have the photos on them, and all that money, unless they were the murderers?"

Neji covered the bodies back up and led Sakura out of the room, gratefully closing the door behind him. "Maybe as bait," he suggested.

"But why would they accept to be bait if it meant their lives?"

He gave a halfhearted shrug. "They probably didn't know. The person in charge, whoever he or she is, probably posed as someone and gave it to them, or gave them a simpler job to do as an excuse for giving it to them. There are plenty of ways, and he or she probably just wanted to distract us. It doesn't get us any closer to finding out who the lead criminal is, though."

They walked down the steps in a thoughtful, fearful silence. Sakura shivered involuntarily, trying to force a particular image out of her head. She was a medic… she had seen the most gruesome sights of battle, and then some. But seeing her own likeness like that, dead, unmoving, forever still… it gave her the chills. Beyond chills, actually-- it made her head spin and her stomach clench. She felt physically ill.

As if sensing this (which, she later realized, he probably had), Neji took her arm. "Relax."

Sakura nodded, thankful as all get-out for his help and hoping that it conveyed to him somehow.

At their approaching footsteps, Temari stood from her chair and greeted them. "Did you find anything?" she asked. "You were in there a long time."

Neji hesitated. "Nothing of much importance," he replied honestly. "But we will need to discuss something with Kazekage-sama right away."

Temari sighed. "It must have been _something_ of importance, then," she muttered to Sakura with a wink, but led them outside without another word.

As the two put their masks back on, Sakura looked around the city. In the streets of Suna, the after-lunch crowd was coming back out. Carts of food sellers lined the streets, and regular boutiques were interspersed between them. Children wound in between Sakura's legs, and a stray dog bounded next to Neji, closely followed by a pregnant woman and two young boys.

Overwhelmed with a sudden sense of déjà vu, the pink-haired kunoichi shook her head. She had felt the same saddening bliss in Konoha not five days ago. Feeling slightly dizzy, Sakura quickened her step, walking next to Temari instead of after her. The street spun, and she fell back. She looked at Neji for a moment, as if not quite sure what to do next. "It's hot," she whispered.

_So hot_.

She fell, her body doing a graceful curve as it dropped to the ground.

Neji caught her and very nearly dropped her. Shifting her weight so he was holding her upright, he looked up towards their guide. "Temari-san!" he called.

The fan-wielder turned. "Sakura!" Temari ran back and pushed up Sakura's mask just enough to see her face. "She's fainted," she whispered. "Can you support her?"

Neji nodded. "I can. Why did she faint?" He slung one arm around her back and the other under her knees, pulling her up bridal-style.

Temari gave a worried half-shrug, her pace increasing. "The heat? Dehydration? Maybe a combination of both? I don't know. But hurry; the last thing we need is for civilians to think there's a battle going on. These people draw to death scenes like bees to honey."

Neji felt like snapping "she didn't die" but refrained, not quite sure why he'd even thought of saying so. They reached the Kazekage's building and stormed up the stairs, going two by two, then three by three. Sakura stirred slightly in his arms, and he stopped, fearing the excess of movement had jolted her. Tenderly, he shifted her, cradling her like a child. "Sakura? Temari-san, wait."

Jade eyes blinked open, pink lips rolled together. "Neji-san." She lifted her head. "Oh, gomen… I didn't mean to…" She tried to release herself from his grasp but failed spectacularly. "Neji, let me go."

Temari flicked her dark eyes to Neji's pale ones. "Let her go, Hyuuga, she can walk." Ever so reluctantly, Neji stood her up on her own, and Sakura clambered up the remaining stairs with them. Temari put an arm around her. "Let's get you some water, Sakura. Hyuuga, you go on ahead-- we'll meet you there."

Sakura watched as Neji turned to the other direction. She noted (with a vindictive satisfaction of some sort) that he looked back about every ten seconds to make sure she was okay.

She groaned.

What a day.

---

In a lounge of some sort, Temari handed her the glass cup of water and watched as she drank it all. "Better?"

Sakura nodded wordlessly, gulping the rest of the cool liquid down, feeling it slide down her throat and settle her stomach. "Much. My body automatically begins a waking and healing process after I go down."

"Useful." Temari set her fan down behind her and clasped Sakura's hand. _Clammy and shivering_, Temari observed silently. _Signs of dehydration. But she's not dehydrated…_ "You're shaking, sweetie. What happened to you?"

Sakura's lips pressed thinly together. "It… Temari, this is just the worst mission." She breathed in through her nose, pouring herself some more water from the pitcher on the glass table, and took a slow draught of it. "Seeing myself, a replica of myself-- like that, all unmoving and stiff… it was horrifying. I'm ANBU, and Neji is ANBU, and even he was shaking. It's worse than, say, seeing yourself die-- which, by the way, I've seen, as well-- it's seeing the aftereffect." Her lips twisted in a sour smile. "Plus, there are all these weird feelings I've been having… I feel like everything in this mission is familiar, like I've done it or seen it all before somehow. My inner persona is coming out in full bloom, which she usually doesn't do unless in really dangerous situations. And as though _that_ isn't scary enough, there's Neji…"

"Neji?"

Sakura flushed. "Never mind. He scares me."

Temari sent her an inquisitive look.

"Temari, you know I've long since sworn off men. It scares me that now of all times and with Neji of all people, I'm breaking that oath." Her words stumbled over each other as they came out. "It's just hard to cope right now."

The blonde woman nodded slowly. "I get where you're coming from," she said softly, "but you're ANBU, and you're on a mission. You can't let this get to you… if you get into a fight, you could lose your life, especially with a criminal like this. He-- or she-- is vicious."

Sakura refilled her water cup again. "I know, I know," she answered, "but it's so hard. Everything good that's happened throughout the past couple weeks is becoming undone." She stood heavily, balancing herself with Temari's arm. "I'm going into the meeting," she muttered, still holding the cup. "I'll be okay. Just promise me you won't tell anyone about this, especially Naruto or Sai. They're worried enough as it is."

Temari nodded. "Alright. Go ahead."

Sakura embraced the older woman softly and made her way down the hall. As she reached the familiar dark-wood double doors, Gaara's voice filtered through the cracks. "Where is Sakura-san?"

"She had some problems," Neji answered, voice muffled by the wood. "She fainted after seeing the copy of herself."

Gaara sighed. "I realize it must be hard for her. But, Hyuuga-- she's always been rather emotionally weak, hasn't she?"

Neji let out a stifled groan. "Kazekage-sama. With all due respect, it was she that found the most clues from the bodies. Even I felt squeamish looking at them."

"But she has proved herself before to be not the most adequate of-"

"She helped save your life, did she not?"

The curtness of Neji's voice surprised her, and she pushed open the door a little bit, stepping inside. The two men faced away from her, looking out the window.

"…yes, she did."

"Then there shouldn't be a question on her toughness. She killed an Akatsuki member; I have not accomplished that. _You_ have not accomplished that." He paused. "I'm sorry, I'm speaking rudely."

"No, no, I understand," Gaara said tiredly, with a weak sigh trailing at the end. "And I apologize. Childhood judgments are hard to destroy. I used to think she was pityingly weak."

There was a cracking sound, and the _chink_ of glass hitting wood.

The men turned.

Sakura looked down at her hand and found it cut, bleeding, and streaming with water. Shards of glass from her cup fell to the floor. "Sakura," they said simultaneously.

The pink-haired medic calmly clenched her fist. Green chakra encircled her hand, and when she opened it, the cuts were gone, as if they'd never been there in the first place. She knelt, picked up the shards of glass, and crossed the room swiftly, depositing them in the Kazekage's trash can. She turned to Gaara. "Gomen. I didn't realize my grip was that tight."

Whether Gaara was ashamed, angry, or noncommittal was yet to be determined, but Neji saw with some amusement that the Kazekage's eyes reflected the realization that he was talking weakness about a girl that could break down buildings with one punch.

The Sand's ruler sat at his desk. "It's fine," he said quietly.

A look of understanding passed between them.

Gaara looked down for a moment, then at Neji. "What did you find on the bodies?"

"The injures were all done by katana," Neji answered, trying to restore normality, "and very well-handled. The use of a katana, however, rules out the rogues as the murderers-- none of them had one. Also, there were burn marks on the edge of every cut, which suggests that the sword used was fire-charged."

The Kazekage frowned, putting a hand to his chin in thought. "But the rogues had money."

"We think the may have involuntarily been used as bait for us," Neji replied solemnly.

"The girl's disembowelment was done perfectly," Sakura voiced quietly, "which suggests a basic use of surgical procedure. I'm not sure I could have done better if I'd had to. Also, there was bruising and fracture on the neck and skull of the girl, a pressure point and a sharp blow to the head to put her out of her pain. In short, Kazekage-sama, this criminal is not ordinary in the least. This case is getting more dangerous by the day."

Gaara sighed, rubbing his temples.

Sakura frowned suddenly. "Wait-- the letter you mailed to Tsunade-shishou…"

"What about it?"

Neji caught on in a flash. "You said the bodies had been stolen, and that the thief or thieves had left pictures behind. You sent us those photos. One was of the two murdered chuunin, the other of some dark red substance."

Gaara stood swiftly, frowning. "The only letter I sent the Godaime Hokage was the one asking for ANBU Black Ops to come and investigate. I sent no other message."

Sakura gasped. "So that means that the criminal _wanted_ us to have those pictures."

"TenTen was right," Neji announced grimly. "Whoever is behind this is leading us on some grotesque treasure hunt. Everywhere we go gives us a new clue that brings us no further to the answer than we were in the first place."

Gaara let out a sound much like a stifled roar of anger and pressed a button on his desk. "Temari, get Kankurou and the rest of the Konoha ANBU down here _now_. It's nearly five o'clock anyway." He looked up at the two jounin. "Stay here. I have to meet with an elder about this; I'll be back by five."

Sakura sighed, willing herself not to collapse as the Kazekage stormed out of the room. Showing weakness now was inconceivable. But the whole damned thing was just so tiring…

Neji moved closer to her and gently squeezed her wrist, bringing her back to the real world. She shot him a grateful smile and fingered her ANBU mask in her hands, index finger running over the grooves and molds that marked the cat's facial features. Every mask, she realized, had characteristics of the person behind it, just like fighting style or chakra signature. Every move this killer made revealed a little bit about him, even if it was cryptic enough to drive the entire squad insane. The trick was to put together the small parts… like a ten-thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle, impossible to figure out until laid out in front of you.

Sakura moved towards the window, staring out at the sandy city below her. What did she know about this murderer? He or she-- she was pretty sure it was a he-- was calculating, cruel, with a stomach of cast iron.

_That's obvious. Focus on the littler things…_

He/she was brilliant, to distract them with the rogues and keep the answers he gave unreachable.

He/she was risky, to forge a note from the Kazekage and threaten the Godaime Hokage's two favorite jounin, plus the Hokage herself.

He/she had enough of a heart to knock out his victim before disemboweling her.

He/she had knowledge enough of Sakura and Naruto's features to replicate them almost exactly. (But then, after their extended missions across the globe, so did many.)

Add it all together, and she got…

Nothing.

Nearly throwing her mask in frustration, Sakura shut her eyes hard, trying to picture the photographs. One obvious: the two murdered chuunin. Two blisteringly obvious: the chuunin alive and the chuunin murdered. One completely cryptic: the shining pool of red. But they all added up somehow.

She thought back to the beginning.

"Nascence," she whispered to herself. It had always been her favorite word.

"Hm?"

Sakura started; she'd forgotten Neji was still in the room. She turned on the spot, pivoting on her toes, and smiled slightly at him. "Nascence," Sakura said, "means 'beginning'. A beginning of war, pain, betrayal. A beginning of a year, a love, a life. The beginning of everything in the world, Neji... everything good and bad and in between. The beginning of me and you. Of everything." Her smile faded. "It was my favorite word… I was trying to think back to the beginning. But right now, all the beginning points to is muddled, bloody murder."

When had she taken the -san suffix off of his name?

No matter.

Neji approached her slowly. "That's a nice word," he said softly, "and that's not the right way to look at this case. It didn't start with the murder. It started when you wrote on that cocktail napkin not a week ago. Isn't that a better beginning than blood?"

Sakura looked at him as if seeing him for the first time. A smile gradually broke out on her face. "Yes," she conceded, "I guess it is. Is it really not only a week since then? It seems like forever."

"Time flies."

Sakura snorted in a most unladylike way and threw her mask in the air, catching it with her hand. "I guess you could say that."

"Sakura."

"Mm."

Neji frowned. How to say it? "I'm sorry about last night."

Sakura stiffened. Honestly, she had to teach this boy some tact. On the unwritten List of When Not to Mention an Impromptu Kiss, number one had to be 'while investigating two bloody murders'. But she smiled at him anyway… the fact that he had almost no social skills whatsoever was rather cute. "It's okay," she said softly. "Naruto and Sai do that all the time. It was kind of… brotherly, I'd think. I'm glad you think I'm close enough to you-- worthy enough of you-- for you to do that. I was just kind of surprised."

In her head, Inner Sakura was rolling her eyes. **_Yeah, yeah, that manly whisper was real 'brotherly'. Unless you're into incest, in which case… why not?_**

Sakura firmly told her to shut up.

Neji smiled, as if somehow hearing her internal conflict himself. "So was I."

And as Gaara, Kankurou, Temari, and the rest of their ANBU squad filed in one by one, solemn looks on their faces that showed they'd been told all about the autopsy, Neji and Sakura couldn't look away from one another's eyes.

---

A series of sharp raps on the door roused Sakura and TenTen from a deep sleep. The weapons mistress turned on the light and ran to the door, opening it to face a breathless Shikamaru. "There's been another-- just hurry up and get out here!"

TenTen turned, but Sakura was already suited up, tightening her ANBU mask around her head. TenTen put on her black outfit and tied her mask as they ran, two slim figures flashing out the door. Sakura's heart pounded as they followed Shikamaru… where were they going? What had happened?

They ran towards a figure slumped in the sands of Suna… it was writhing in pain, moaning chaotically.

Neji turned to them from ahead and stopped, clasping Sakura's hand in his with a tender motion. "It's Naruto," he said breathlessly, his face pained. "He's been harmed badly."

Sakura's heart fairly stopped. "Let me get to him! I can heal him!"

Neji grabbed her other hand and kissed her neck ever so gently. "He's lashing out at anyone that gets near him, Sakura-chan. It's not safe."

And then Sakura knew.

Angrily, she slammed her foot down, pulled out a kunai, and stabbed Neji in the chest.

"KAI!"

The brown-haired man dissolved from her sight, as did the rest of the world, everything sliding into each other like paint thrown on a wall. Sakura looked around, getting her bearings.

She was sitting on her window ledge.

She shrieked, backing up immediately as she felt TenTen stir behind her. "Sakura?"

The genjutsu expert was panting. "TenTen… genjutsu! Somebody put me in a genjutsu-- I was halfway out the window! If I'd fallen, I could have died!"

TenTen hurried out of bed, putting an arm around the smaller woman. "Are you serious?"

"I was _sitting on the windowsill._" As much as she tried to control it, Sakura's voice trembled. "Somebody's really trying to kill me…"

TenTen frowned as they heard voices from the other side of the hallway. The bun-haired girl opened the door and knocked on Sai and Naruto's. As Sakura went to join her, Sai opened it. "What happened?" TenTen asked curiously.

Behind Sai, Naruto was wild-eyed and in a cold sweat. "I was in a genjutsu," he said breathlessly. "I nearly fell out the window."

Sakura felt a cold chill run down her spine as she grasped Naruto's arm. "I… I was in the same genjutsu," she told him slowly.

Behind her, TenTen stiffened. "I'm getting Neji. Sai, watch over them!"

The ink-jutsu user nodded, and the brown-haired ANBU crossed the hall, knocking on Neji and Lee's door frantically. Neji opened it almost at once and, once briefed on the situation by TenTen, he crossed swiftly to Sakura and Naruto. Shikamaru opened his door with a usual "yare, yare… what's with the troublesome noise? Can't sleep with you all pounding on doors…"

Neji faced them. "You were both put in the same genjutsu?" he asked in a low voice, putting a hand on Sakura's shoulder.

Was it Naruto's imagination, or was there an undertone of actual fright in there? And not the comical cowering he'd shown at last night's interrogation-- but real, blood-curdling fear?

Sakura nodded numbly, a hand at her mouth. "It was so… so realistic. It was like I was actually there, none of that fizzy feeling you sometimes get when you're in a genjutsu. Whoever did this was… amazing."

Neji turned. "Shikamaru, Sai, Lee, TenTen-- go outside. See if whoever did this is still there."

The group of four nodded and disappeared almost into thin air, hopping out windows and onto the roof. Sakura shook her head as Naruto loudly voiced his outrage. "I should go with them."

Neji tightened his grip on her shoulder. "No. You're a genjutsu expert-- try to analyze this. Was there anything unusual about it? A signature mark of some sort?"

"No," she whispered, "it was just a normal genjutsu. Just advanced. And genjutsu don't have signature marks, like a fighting style or a ninjutsu specialty. It's just genjutsu. I'd say it was a way-upgraded version of a basic jutsu."

Naruto nodded from next to Sakura, knocking Neji's hand off her shoulder with a warning glare. "It wasn't anything special, but really well done. I don't know anyone but Kurenai-sensei or Sakura-chan that could put up a genjutsu like that."

Neji scowled. "If it was so good, how did you break out of it?"

Sakura flushed slightly, her mouth open for a bit before she replied. "In the genjutsu, you called me Sakura-chan, and you refused to let me treat a wounded Naruto."

"So?"

"You never call me Sakura-chan, Neji-san, and you know better than to get in the way of me and healing someone." She flashed him her trademark, cheeky grin.

Neji didn't smile back.

Her beaming grin was forced, he could tell-- her eyes didn't sparkle with it as they usually did, and her hands were cold and shaking slightly. The whole day had obviously greatly unnerved her. Naruto was looking a bit worse for the wear, too. They had, after all, almost died around five minutes ago. _Why is the killer so obviously targeting them? A personal grudge? Or just coincidence?_

ANBU training had taught him years earlier that there was no such thing as coincidence.

Neji sighed, running a hand through his hair and focusing on the two faces in front of him. He glanced at Naruto. "Do you two want to talk privately? You've had little chance to do so, and it might help to collaborate ideas."

Sakura shot him a grateful half-smile as Naruto led her a bit down the hallway. They sat together, Naruto holding her hand, in silence until the blonde, whiskered boy broke it. "Sakura-chan?"

"Aa?"

"Are you scared?"

Sakura didn't answer for a moment, but twisted her upper body and hugged him hard. "Yes."

Naruto smiled slightly, patting her back, running callused fingers through her pink hair. "Good. I am, too." He shot another glare at Neji for good measure, then poked the object of his embrace on the forehead. "Hey."

"What?"

"What d'you think of Hyuuga, eh?"

Sakura scowled into his shirt. "Is this really the time to be the overprotective brother, Naruto?"

He shot her a foxy grin that wavered only slightly. "I'm serious, Sakura-chan. Sai and I would like to know what degree glare to give him."

She chuckled. "He's nice, Naruto. He's a good friend."

"That's all?" he prompted.

Sakura socked him in the stomach. "Yes, that's all."

_**Liar.**_

Sakura made a face that didn't go unnoticed by Naruto. "Hey, you talking to yourself again?"

She sighed. "I'd been hoping you wouldn't notice that, actually. She's flaring up again. I didn't want to worry you."

Naruto was remarkably quiet for a moment as Sakura sat up, brushing the bangs away from her forehead at Neji's watchful, careful, protective gaze.

"She only comes up during dangerous fights, doesn't she?" Naruto murmured.

Sakura hesitated.

"Hai. But I'm pretty stressed-- that's probably a part of it, too."

Naruto looked at her, concerned, as the group of four filed in one by one, panting and luckless. Lee shook his head at Neji. "Whoever it was left nothing… he has left our glorious hunt unfinished. The scoundrel."

Neji gave another look towards Naruto and Sakura and sighed. "Alright. Bed. But I want Sai and TenTen to be extra sensitive for the rest of the night-- tune your chakra if need be. We don't want something else like that happening."

Sakura and Naruto stood and walked over to the group. As they prepared to go to their rooms, however, Neji's hand once again clasped Sakura's shoulder. She turned. "Aa, Captain?"

His grip relaxed, and he frowned slightly, as if he didn't know quite what he stopped her for.

"I'm glad you're good at genjutsu," he said finally, lamely, horribly.

She smiled at him again, and it was a bit stronger this time.

"Me, too."

---

Author's Note: Wow, that has to be one of the fastest updates I've ever done… I was just really excited about this chapter. A lot happens, so it's one of the most important chapters in the whole story. We've got some NejiSaku interaction here, a little bloodiness, a little drama, a bit of humor, a little NaruSaku bonding time… I promise that this'll have action, though. I haven't really put much in, but there will be A BUCKETLOAD O' FIGHTING going on in the next couple chapters.

By the way, my e-mail is getting rather funky, so I didn't get a chance to reply to the latest reviews. To all of you-- thank you EVER so much, and I'll be sure to read them all as soon as I can.

Hope you liked-- and whether you did or didn't, that review button would like to hear why!

--Dejeuner


	6. Despair

**Nascence**

---

_VI: Despair_

---

_The straps of this freaking thing are digging into my back_.

Sakura adjusted the ropelike straps of her knapsack and sighed silently from beneath her mask, watching sand blow off the tips of dunes. Hair blew over her face, along with the gritty feel of desert, and she pushed her hair back. She needed as best visibility as she could get, and no matter how disappointed she was at her job, she'd have to have it done right.

Being on border patrol was _not_ what she'd signed up for when she joined ANBU.

Next to her, Sai slumped a bit down the wall, his arms folded.

Sakura kicked a shower of sand at him, and he turned a masked head towards her. "What was that for?"

"Wanted to make sure you were awake," she answered with a wry smile.

He groaned slightly. "This makes me feel… what is it you call it?"

"Bored?" she suggested.

Sai nodded. "Bored," he repeated, learning the new vocabulary word. "It isn't a very enjoyable feeling."

"No, it's not. But you feel it all the time if you're not busy. Weren't you ever bored in Root?"

"Probably. But I never felt it."

Sakura grunted and turned back to the front solemnly, trying to shake off that particularly disturbing comment. Not _feeling_. She couldn't even begin to imagine it. Of course, one of the pink-haired kunoichi's weaknesses was that she sometimes felt too much to the point of being oversensitive… but in any case, an absence of emotion felt abnormal to her. It was why she had hated Sai so much at the beginning. He was everything she was not.

But once the ink-user had gotten closer to her, had developed a series of strong bonds between her and Naruto and Kakashi and Yamato, he had opened up, and she had begun to teach him emotion. He was getting to be a good student.

_I'll help out Iruka-sensei when we get back. He'd like that. I haven't taught in a while._

A heavy hand on her shoulder jolted her out of her reverie. She turned her head to see Kankurou, purple-lined face grimacing against the wind. "Gaara wants you back in." Sai turned to leave, as well, but Kankurou shook his head. "Just her, for safety reasons. She'll be replaced by Nara; Sakura, you'll go up and join Uzumaki and your captain on guard duty at the training facility. Tell the blonde Gaara wants to see him. Can you find your way?"

Sakura nodded. "Aa. Bye, Sai. Kankurou-san."

Sai lifted a hand in acknowledgement to her goodbye and Kankurou nodded; she leapt down from the gates, landing neatly on the roof of a store. Starting at a run and leaping the cracks between buildings, Sakura kept low. _Don't want civilians staring at me or anything. This isn't exactly orthodox._ The black-clad woman slid smoothly down the sloped roof of a home and walked the rest of the way to the training facility, pulling her hair into a ponytail. Even though the wind was forced to slow by the buildings inside the Suna gates, it was still bad enough to whip perfectly-brushed hair into a mass of uncorrectable tangles.

As she crested a hill, she smiled: Naruto was waving at her enthusiastically, jumping up and down in a manner most un-ANBU-like, and Neji's scorn was radiating off him in thick waves. She was snickering when she reached them. "Naruto, Gaara wants you," she told the hyperactive blonde.

He mock-pouted. "Aw, just when Sakura-chan gets here." He gave her a brilliant smile that she could see even behind his mask from the way his cheeks moved. Then, he turned to Neji and bowed slightly. "Captain?"

"Dismissed," Neji replied lazily. "Sakura, take his post."

Sakura rolled her eyes at the formalities as Naruto walked off and leaned against the building. "Hai." After pausing for a moment, she flicked her eyes to him. "I heard you pacing last night."

"Hn."

"Captain, lack of sleep will _not_ help you in battle any. Take off your mask."

"Haruno, I'm the captain, I'll be the one giving orders-"

Sakura's voice turned to steel. "_Take. Off. The. Mask._"

Neji took it off.

Sakura peered at his face from behind her own porcelain mask, scowling at him from about a head and a half under him, their height difference greatly pronounced. "You've got rings under your eyes," she said disapprovingly, tracing them with a gloved hand. "You didn't sleep after that genjutsu attack, did you?"

"As I said before, I'm captain," Neji said quietly. "My responsibility is the safety of my team."

"No," his companion interjected, "your responsibility is the completion of the mission."

"Which can't be _done_ without the safety of my team."

Sakura stared at him for a moment before slowly handing his mask back.

He took it equally gradually and tied it on his face, never taking his eyes from hers.

She sighed. "Just please don't do it again."

Neji was silent for a series of long moments before he sighed. "How do you do that?" he snapped at her.

Sakura was taken aback. "What d'you mean?"

"Just bounce back from things like last night. You were nearly killed!" Fighting to keep his voice under control, Neji breathed deep and repeated. "You were nearly killed."

The female ANBU stepped back a bit, fingering the hilt of her katana rather nervously. "I've done it a lot, that's all," she answered softly. "Bouncing back. It doesn't take as much if you do it normally. Besides," she continued, "it took you a while to get over your injuries from Kidoumaru, ne?"

He hesitated. "I suppose so."

"And you're still afraid of spiders."

Neji shot her a glare that did not go unnoticed. "You mention that day in the hospital to anyone, Sakura, and I swear--"

"When did you stop calling me Haruno?" she interrupted.

He froze. "I didn't."

"You call me 'Sakura' now. Not 'Haruno' or 'woman' or whatever you used to call me." She grinned under her mask, enjoying the flush that was surely rising to his cheeks beneath that white mask.

Neji's mouth was open wide for a long time before he actually spoke. "What are you implying?"

"Just that we're better acquainted now, of course," she answered evenly. "We're friends, ne?"

Neji shook his head with a small smile. "Hn."

Sakura enjoyed the comfortable silence that stretched between them after such a careless chat. She hitched herself over the edge of the wall surrounding the door and sat on it, dangling her feet over it. "Why are we guarding this place?" she asked quietly.

Neji glanced at her. "This was the place the last two murders happened," he answered after a moment. "The victims were killed inside this training facility while they were sparring."

Sakura was still. "Oh. Neji?"

"Hn."

"I feel strange."

He glanced at her curiously and in concern-- last time she'd said something like that, she'd fainted. "What do you mean?"

"I mean…" She searched for the words, racking her brain. "I feel like something horrible is going to happen."

Neji sighed, a bit irritated. "Sakura, I'm getting a bit tired of your 'feelings'. You told me you felt something horrible was going to happen at the beginning of this mission."

She didn't look at him. "But today… it's so _concentrated_. Like it's going to happen really soon."

Her captain shot her a withering glance that didn't go unnoticed, even under a mask. "I already told you a mission is not based on emotion. It's based on what you have to do and how you're going to do it."

He thought for certain that she'd flare up as she usually did, shouting profanities or hitting him as she did Naruto. But instead she turned a masked gaze to him that seemed to reflect deep sadness. "Gomen. I won't say any more."

_Damn it all_, he thought to himself angrily, _guilt is not an option here. I did what I need to do as captain and told her to act accordingly. There's nothing wrong with that._ But a hot, unpleasant feeling was sinking to his stomach like molten rock.

She did this to him. She made him feel-- she made him _feel_! Enraged, Neji almost shouted at her. How could she make him feel genuine emotion, something he had put off as worthless the moment his father died? How dare she?

But, then again, along with the rage came something else altogether. Something that scared him. Something more mysterious than the photo of glimmering red and something more gruesome than the murdered chuunin.

And the worst part was that he didn't want it to stop.

---

Fatigue had no meaning anymore.

Lee's leg muscles ached, his heart felt like it was going to pound out of his chest, and with every breath he took there was a sharp pain in his lungs. But Gai-sensei had taught him long ago to ignore pain and to ignore exhaustion and to keep pushing until you just gave out.

And he had a message to deliver.

_But, Kami, how to deliver it?_

He had been taijutsu sparring with TenTen at Suna's message tower when a Konoha messenger bird had landed next to them. Breathless, he had paused the spar while TenTen took the scroll from the bird. "Strange," she had said, "it's to us. 'Konoha ANBU Squad Four'." She had opened it, read it, and gasped, her face blanching. Her eyes had welled with tears, and she had handed him the scroll.

He had read it silently, eyes widening even more than usual. He, too, had felt tears burn from the backs of his dark eyes-- his hands had shook terribly, and he'd dropped the scroll. The sound it had made seemed to echo throughout the entire tower.

TenTen had looked up at him, a hand to her mouth in awe and horror and shock. "We have to tell them," she'd said.

Lee had nodded dully, hardly noticing what he was doing, hardly noticing his next words. "Go find our teammates at the border and Naruto-kun at the Kazekage's office… I shall inform Neji and Sakura-san."

TenTen had closed her eyes, tears sprinkling her eyelashes, but had nodded tiredly. "Aa."

And now he was running his fastest, salty liquid falling to the ground right after every footstep he took.

The training center came into his view, and his tears nearly doubled at the horrible normalcy of it. Sakura was sitting carelessly on the wall that was the building's border, and Neji was slumped against the wall. Both seemed relatively happy, carefree…

Why, oh why, was he the one that had to ruin it all?

At his approach, the two shinobi came to attention: Sakura leapt off the wall and stood next to Neji, who had stood straight and taken a step forward, ready to spring into action at a single word.

Before they had a chance to open their mouths (Lee knew he would completely break down if they did), he told them.

"Hokage-sama's died."

---

Sakura's world fell away.

At Lee's one sentence, she crumbled: she felt herself take a step back in shock as Neji took one forward. She felt her own gloved hand tear the ANBU mask from her face, fingers scrabbling with the tie and finally breaking it in two, pulling down the milky-white porcelain to reveal wobbling mouth and widened eyes and pale face. She felt herself internally collapse into nothingness, a part of her just folding into itself and settling like lead at the pit of her stomach.

She felt air building up in her lungs, but no sound came out… she wanted so badly to scream till her heart burst, but only a croaking sigh came out. She was breathing too fast, she knew-- medic's sense told her that if she didn't stop hyperventilating she would faint once more. But she could care less. Her mind whirled, her world turned upside-down and backside-front by two words.

She knew it was silly, but memories crowded her mind: seeing Tsunade for the first time, all proud and feminist and strong. Asking the Hokage to be her tutor and being accepted as an apprentice. Training with her, marveling in the strength that found itself lodged in her fist. Hugging her for the very first time, laughing at her for the first time. Having her cut her hair again after it had grown out. Becoming chuunin, seeing her satisfaction; becoming jounin, seeing her pride; becoming ANBU, seeing her love. The day she'd accidentally called Tsunade 'mother'. The last day she'd seen her Tsunade-shishou: realizing for once that she was old. Waving to her cheerfully as they left on the most dangerous mission she'd ever been on. The fleeting nightmare that her mentor, her mother, would die soon.

And now that nightmare was real.

Her shaking fingers found Neji's sleeve, and she grasped onto it as if it was a lifeline; she felt his stiff denial residing in the hard muscles of his arm.

But he melted at her touch almost at once, mouth closing and warm arms encircling her smaller body. She felt her hands search his chest until they reached right below his shoulders; she grasped at him, not caring if she was hurting him, only wanting him to feel the agonizing emptiness that was spreading from head to toe. She buried her face in his chest and let out a wail to break a heart… to lament the death of a mother.

---

"You are now Rokudaime Hokage of Konohakagure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves."

Rokudaime Hokage.

His dream.

Naruto stared blankly at the elder that announced this to him the moment the ANBU squadron reentered Konoha. The Kazekage had given them his permission at once and had asked for Naruto to put an extra flower on her grave from him. And now he would be setting two flowers on the grave of his own Tsunade-baa-chan as Hokage. The old woman, one of the crotchety elders that nobody really liked, was clearly not happy with Tsunade's decision as naming the Nine-Tailed Fox's container as her successor, as her face was creased in a disapproving frown that fairly radiated horror. Nonetheless, the woman bowed slightly to him. "Hokage-sama."

Naruto's knapsack fell limply to the ground, stirring up dust as his fellow ANBU members, even Neji, turned and bowed to him. "Hokage-sama," they murmured.

No.

_Not like this_.

Naruto heard a muffled sob behind him and turned; he took Sakura's hand in his and gave her a fierce hug, almost painful in its love. Sakura, still dusty from travel, tears still (or was it once again?) leaking from her eyes, took his head in her hands and kissed his forehead. "I knew she would," she muttered, her tongue thick from tears. "I'm proud of you."

The blonde nodded slightly and turned to the elder woman, bowing in return, tears sparking at the corners of his eyes as they'd done continuously for the entirety of the trip, ever since TenTen had delivered the news. "I-- I would like a funeral to be organized for tonight."

"Tonight? Hokage-sama, that's hardly orthodox-"

"Tonight." Naruto's new taste of power came full force with the glare he shot at the woman, reminding her exactly of whom she was dealing with. "My companions and I have a mission to complete in Suna."

_Rokudaime Hokage._

"Hai," she muttered. "Tonight. During which we will announce your new rank."

Naruto nodded numbly. "Aa."

"You will all need to clean up," the woman said stiffly. "Shinobi uniform is not permitted at a-"

"God damn it!" Sakura's shout rang from the gates of Konoha. Izumo and Kotetsu, ever-present at the gates and watching, glanced at each other with poorly-disguised shock. "We've been to a funeral before, you old hag. If you contradict the new Hokage one more time I will see to it that your fancy shoes disappear into rubble created by _my fist_."

The woman backed off, a bit taken aback. "V-very well. I shall see you all tonight."

TenTen put a hand on Sakura's shoulder as the woman backed away. "Sakura, please. Calm yourself."

Sakura's fists clenched, and for a moment, TenTen thought the kunoichi would hit her. But Sakura let out a trembling breath. "Aa. I just… she got on Tsunade-shishou's nerves a lot. Now I know why."

Shikamaru let out a weak laugh. "Aa, she's troublesome." Swallowing hard, the shadow-user ran a shaking hand through his hair. "I have to get home, I guess. I'll see you all at the funeral." Unsure of whom to address, Shikamaru hesitated in front of Naruto and Neji. "Captain-- Hokage-sama… what time are we-"

Naruto nodded to Neji, and the Hyuuga prodigy exhaled slowly. "We will meet at daybreak tomorrow. Same place. The mission is first and foremost."

With a scattered 'hai', the group split almost at once: Shikamaru and Neji went in the same direction to their respective clan homes, and Lee and TenTen went another way. Sakura and Sai looked at Naruto almost disbelievingly, and the blue-eyed Hokage sat heavily on the ground. "I didn't want it to be like this," he said hoarsely, as if protesting. "I wanted her to be grumbling and shouting and being profane and giving me the Hokage's hat with a 'damn kid, I can't believe I'm doing this'. I didn't want her to die."

"I never knew her that well," Sai said quietly, sitting next to Naruto. "But I feel… hollow. Spent. Like I've run too much or exhausted myself during a mission or a spar. Like chakra depletion, but worse. What is that called?"

Sakura was quiet for a long time after she sat on Naruto's other side, but she took a shaky breath and answered Sai's question.

"There's no name for that, Sai," she replied dully. "It's a couple parts sorrow, a couple parts anger, a coupe parts emptiness. It's what you feel after a death. It's horrible… ne?"

Sai frowned. "If people always have feelings like this every time someone dies, what's the point of feeling at all?"

Neither Naruto nor Sakura had an answer for that.

---

Sakura tugged vaguely at the high collar of her black dress. It seemed too happy for such an occasion, even in a dark color. The hemline was ruffled, pleated. It was a party dress, not a funeral dress.

But it would have to do.

Glancing at herself in the mirror, she pushed back her bangs and inspected her bloodshot eyes. Finally dry, they were puffy and crimson-tinted; ugly. Sighing, Sakura tugged at the strap of her shoes before her brain stumbled onto something she couldn't believe no one had mentioned: how did Tsunade die?

Wobbling a bit on heels, the pink-haired woman called from her room. "I'm going to see Shizune-chan," she said loudly. "I'll meet you there."

With mumbled goodbyes in her ears, Sakura took off her shoes and held them tight as she launched herself over the window, onto the roofs of buildings until she reached Shizune's apartment. She slid from the roof and knocked on the door, trying not to cry yet again.

The black-haired kunoichi opened the door with a tired smile and immediately engulfed Sakura in an embrace. "Hey," she whispered. "How are you feeling?"

"Like shit," Sakura mumbled into her shoulder, returning the hug. "You?"

Shizune pulled back and led her inside. "A little worse, I think." Her eyes, too, were red and swollen from crying.

"Shizune-chan," Sakura started, examining her home, "what did Tsunade-shishou die from?"

Shizune looked up. "There… there was a criminal outside the gates," she answered, stuttering slightly at the directness of the question. She sat heavily on a futon. "She fought him, and he injured her severely. She had to use… well…" Shizune sighed, as if trying to hold herself together. "She died from overuse of Creation: Rebirth."

Sakura fingered a small photograph of Tsunade and Shizune at a gambling table together, most likely before Tsunade became Hokage, and smiled slightly. "Why did she fight the criminal? Don't lesser jounin usually handle that?"

"He asked for her, personally, or he'd destroy the village," her companion said with a wry smile. "She commanded that no one follow or help her, but she wrote something very quickly on a scroll and told me to send it to Suna, addressed to your ANBU group, as fast as it could possibly go."

Sakura frowned and turned to her. "So she knew she would die?" she whispered. "Why didn't she just let someone else-" she choked and coughed, trying to compose herself before the tears came rushing out again. "Why didn't she just let someone else handle it? Why risk her life when she, too, was targeted by the Suna criminal?"

Shizune's smile twisted into a grimace. "This is Tsunade-sama we're talking about, Sakura. She wouldn't stand down so easily, ne?" The woman shook her head. "And that was a tough man, whoever he was… dangerously, horrifyingly tough. The thing she fought was actually a kage bunshin."

Sakura was silent for a moment, trying to digest this, her mouth agape. "A kage bunshin? She was defeated by this man's _kage bunshin_? He must be… worse than S-class!"

Shizune nodded sadly. "Aa. And he disappeared before we could even pick up a chakra trail. When we got there, she had used Creation: Rebirth to heal herself, but she was fading from it. She told me to name Naruto-kun as her successor and to save her best stores of sake for you."

Sakura sat next to her. "And she knew he was coming for her."

"Somehow."

To her horror, Sakura felt the backs of her eyes burn, signifying a storm of tears. She breathed through her mouth, trying to compose herself, trying to relax. "I can't believe it."

Shizune turned her head away. "Kakashi is coming to pick me up, Sakura. Would you like to walk with us?"

Sakura shook her head numbly. "No, I wouldn't," she stated bluntly, standing. She was angry with Shizune suddenly, so terribly angry. How dare she not get to Tsunade's aid in time? How dare she not ignore her request and run out there immediately to assist the Hokage? _How dare she tell me this? How can this all be happening to me?_

"Sakura, I understand-"

Sakura slammed the door behind her.

She walked barefoot down the empty streets of the city; everyone was probably going to the funeral, in the other direction. She looked up, and the first thing that caught her eye was Hokage's Tower: Tsunade's past residence, Naruto's current one. And right behind that was the monument. Tsunade's head jutted out in a fierce, almost bird-of-prey-like protective gaze, eyebrows creased in a frown, mouth turned in a determined, sturdy feature.

Sakura wished it would rain like it did during the Sandaime Hokage's funeral, but the sun was setting beautifully and the birds were chirping their last. The weather was perfect. It seemed a mockery.

She turned and made her way to the mournful procession turning east.

---

The moment Naruto entered the procession, he walked straight towards her.

Despite the circumstances and the fact her eyes and nose were crimson from sobbing, Hinata felt her heart flutter madly as it usually did when he had that determined, saddened look on his face. He grasped her hands in his and kissed her sweetly on the lips for the first time. Before, out of respect and fear of her father, it had only been kisses on the cheek or forehead… but this was full of promise. He looked at her solemnly. "Hinata, marry me. Your family can't deny my now, I'm Hokage." He smiled slightly at her, eyes pained and loving. "What d'you say?"

She nodded, eyes misting over as she knew they would. Happiness and pain stretched inside her like a balloon, leaving room for no other thought but whirling contradiction. "Yes, of course," she answered softly. Next to her, she felt rather than saw Kiba and Shino and Hanabi smile at each other, like "about time".

And then Naruto gave a whoop, picked her up, swung her around. She squealed, but he let go of her, kissed her soundly until she felt she'd faint, and then ran up to a podium, clutching the sides of it in front of the pure white coffin that held the Godaime Hokage's body.

He cleared his throat, bowing his blonde head for a moment before lifting it with a beaming smile.

"Tsunade-baa-chan… I mean, the Godaime Hokage… she was a hell of a woman. She was gentle as a mother, fierce as a lover, fair as a ruler, and scary as shit when she was beating me up for calling her a granny."

A wave of reluctant chuckles rippled throughout the crowd in front of him.

Naruto smiled slightly, remembering, tears starting at the bottom of his eyes, and shook his head, leaning on the podium. "She recognized dreams, she did: I'm Hokage, aren't I? The Kyuubi container, somebody the village hated and feared… she respected me, and she's made my lifetime what I wanted it to be. She recognized talent, too… a kunoichi everyone thought worthless was brought up into the ass-kicking, unusual-hair-colored woman we all know and slightly cower at the mention of today."

More chuckles, and Sakura gave him a weak smile from her place in the front row.

"But most of all, ladies and gentlemen," Naruto continued, smiling even broader, "she was a woman who enjoyed life… and knew how to take the most from it. And so I doubt she'd want us to sit her, grieving about her. Because of that, I have a fiancée that I didn't have the courage to propose to before this. Because of that, I'm going to have Sakura-chan break into her hoards of stashed sake. And because of that, this won't be a funeral. This will be the party she never got to have as Hokage, ne? So let's make it a great one."

A smattering of applause started off, then escalated into rousing cheers and half-sobs, the crowd in front of him alight with tears and laughter. Naruto placed two roses on the Hokage's coffin.

Next, Sakura came up, giving him a hug and putting her rose on top of the wood; then Jiraiya, Shizune, Shikamaru, Sai, Hinata… the whole crowd, pushing against each other to pay their respects to the new Hokage and send good wishes to the old.

It was like this, with Naruto and Hinata beaming, people laughing and sharing memories, and the sun setting in the west horizon, Sakura left the funeral.

---

Neji had followed her. He wasn't really sure why, and he didn't really care why, either. He felt he had to, somehow, or at least that it would be right.

She was in the Hokage's office, soon to be Naruto's, which was slightly predictable. It was also hers, after all. He watched as she trailed her fingers over Tsunade's desk, chaotically still and waiting for another Hokage. Sakura's foot clinked against something, and she looked down, pulling a hidden stash of sake from a cupboard built into the desk. She laughed suddenly, and, back to Neji, said: "You can come out now."

Ashamed, the mahogany-haired jounin crept from his hiding place. "Sakura-san?"

"There's a note on this," she said, sounding slightly surprised. She pulled a scrap of paper from the sake container. "From Tsunade-shishou."

He frowned.

"Addressed to me."

Sakura leaned against the desk, sake clenched in her fist, note in front of her face. And she smiled, suddenly, a sad little smile that broke a heart as much as her scream from earlier had done. "She knew she didn't have long," she said quietly.

"What?"

She waved the note. "It's from her, to me, on the day of her death. Right before the battle." Sakura cleared her throat. "'_Sakura, I don't really know how to tell you this, but I suppose that the easiest way to say it is: I am going to die today. I know I will… I'm not quite sure how I know, but it will be in combat with a fearsome enemy. All I can ask of you, my protégé, is that you don't grieve after me too much. I'm leaving you all my sake, after all._

_I want you to be careful in Suna. This challenger I'm going to face is the criminal, I can feel it-- and yet I'm so very frustrated I won't be able to tell you who it is. But I can tell you this without even seeing him: he is a great evil. I can only hope that you can contain it._

'_Naruto is the Rokudaime Hokage now, I suppose. Brat._

'_Sakura, I've always looked upon you as a daughter-- and so now, like any mother, I'm going to command you to continue training; to leave behind all your fears, whether of love or of death; to keep those idiots of yours in line; and to never stop at anything that stands in your path._

'_Naruto may be my successor, but you are my descendant. You inherited my strength, my temper, my sake… let all Konoha be warned, ne?_

'_Good luck in all that you do--_

'_Beat that bastard's ass in Suna--_

'_and drink up._

'_Tsunade_."

Sakura turned away for a moment, shoulders shaking, laughing slightly. "What a woman," she murmured.

Neji walked up to her, tentative, hesitating to touch her. She looked as if she could shatter at any moment. "Will you be alright?"

She was silent for a while before turning to face him, sake in hand. She set it on the desk with a loud crack. "Neji, how can I possibly answer that question?" she asked softly.

He stared at her, waiting for her to continue, wanting-- strangely-- for her to just cry.

But when she looked at him, her eyes were dry; they radiated a fierce mix of determination and sadness. "How can anyone fully be 'alright' when someone close to them dies?" She shook her head. "I knew it would happen, of course… we are all shinobi, after all. And after Asuma…" Sakura sighed. "I just didn't think it would be her. I didn't want to think that she could possibly die."

"She lived a good life. No one can deny that," he soothed.

Sakura nodded. "And yet, I always felt that there was so much more she wanted to do."

He looked into her eyes, deep, for the first time. They weren't simply green, he realized. They had golden rings round the pupils, an orangey glow spreading from them. It was strange, like seeing another part of Haruno Sakura he hadn't seen before. And he spoke. "You'll have to do them for her."

Sakura never broke his gaze. "Aa, I guess I will. Just like her to leave me with so much work."

Neji chuckled gruffly and, on a whim, took her into his arms.

She didn't pull back.

Sakura leaned into the embrace, her arms going around his waist and his likewise. She leaned into the bottom of his shoulder, as high as she could reach, and closed her eyes; he had an anchoring smell, masculinity and peppermint and spice.

Neji held her tightly, stroking the bottom tips of her hair, marveling (_enjoying_, his inner conscience squeaked traitorously) at the feel of their bodies meshed together. They didn't fit perfectly, not at all-- she was far too short and he too wide against her petite body. But that, he saw suddenly, didn't matter… not a bit.

They pulled back simultaneously, and she smiled. "Thanks. I… ano… I needed that."

He nodded, face a bit flushed, and turned away from her, wanting nothing more than to exit the scene as quickly as possible. "You're sure you'll be alright? For now?"

Sakura smiled sadly at him, her body still warm and tingling from the feel of his solid figure against hers. She felt an electric heat spread from the pit of her stomach to her arms, raising goosebumps.

"For now."

---

Author's Note: I… can't believe I wrote that.

Aww, man… I never was good at character death. And I really loved Tsunade. Oh, well-- it's crucial for the plot, so I guess it had to be done.

ONE MORE THING, and please read this: FOR ALL THE PEOPLE THAT ARE WRITING ME REVIEWS WITH IDEAS OF WHO THE CULPRIT IS, PLEASE STOP. Not stop writing reviews, of course, and your speculation is brilliant, but I'm afraid that the majority of you are not correct, and it gets kind of old to see 'it's sasuke' or 'it's itachi' in every review I receive. I ask for your constructive criticism and praise, and that's all. But thanks very much, anyway.


	7. Blood Spattered

**Nascence**

---

_VII: Blood Swirled_

---

Naruto was brooding.

Sakura could tell, even as she was just walking into the living room, from years of experience with the brooding type of guy; his blonde head was resting on his chin, shock of hair ruffled from multiple running-throughs of his own tanned fingers. He was sitting, slouched, on their old, beat-up black couch, tapping the leather seats with callused fingertips.

She shot a confused look at Sai, but the ink-user merely shrugged disinterestedly as he repacked supplies for the Suna mission, his movements slightly more sluggish than usual. _I guess we're all kind of slow_, Sakura reasoned mentally. _Death puts a huge burden on everyone's shoulders._

Sighing, she moved from the portal doorway and sat next to Naruto on the couch, grasping his hand to keep his fingers from tapping. "Are you all right?"

Naruto frowned. "The elders say I can't go on the mission with you."

The green-eyed kunoichi nodded; she had become uncomfortably aware of that fact as she'd laid awake the last night, wondering how Naruto would take it. "I heard. You _are_ Hokage, now, though. Your responsibilities are a little less concentrated, mission by mission. You're in charge of a country of shinobi. You can't be expected to help a team individually now, not when you have so much to do after Tsunade-shishou's death."

Naruto shook his head, blue eyes narrowed in a frown. "Sakura-chan, I'm worried for you. And don't," he added quickly, shooting her a look, "give me any of that strong-woman bullshit. You are in _danger_ on this mission, now more so than ever because I'm not there to divide or distract this guy's attention away from only you."

Sakura frowned at him. "It's my job, Naruto, I can't just quit. If…" She hesitated, looking away slightly. "If anything, I feel even more justified in going there now… because of Tsunade-shishou." She looked up to him, glaring, although Naruto knew it was more to the murderer than himself. "He killed my 'mother' and two innocents already… and there's no telling who he'll get next. I mean, he obviously doesn't care who he goes through to get to whatever he's after And I'll be damned if it's you or me." She paused. "I… I just have to go. D'you understand that?"

He sighed and nodded, whiskered cheeks puckered slightly in discontent. "Yeah, I understand that. I just wish… I wish you were more careful, like you were when we were younger."

She poked him hard on the thigh, staring at him in half disbelief, half anger. "Naruto, if I was as careful now as I was back then, I wouldn't have that ANBU mask over there," she told him in a low voice. "God, Naruto, you're marrying _Hinata_! That kind of shows that everyone's grown substantially since our genin days, ne? Didn't you realize that? We have to deal with things like death and murder and… and what shinobi have to deal with every day! We're not little kids anymore."

Naruto stood from the couch, eyeing the Hokage's hat and robes that hung from the doorknob to his room with a thickened mixture of pride and anxiety.

"I know, Sakura-chan. It's just… sometimes, I wish we still were."

---

They ANBU squadron out before the sun had even risen.

It had, in fact, just been peeking from the trees, a pastel-yellow circle, when they'd taken off. And the group, short one member now, had gone as fast as humanly possible to get to their goal, reaching Suna by the time the sun was cresting the sand dunes in the other direction. _Twelve hours_, Sakura grumbled silently as she walked into the too-familiar bedroom with TenTen. Sighing, she flopped on the bed, shading her eyes from the sunlight pouring in the window with a lazy hand.

TenTen sat next to her, biting her lip as if trying to say something. "How are you feeling?" she asked carefully.

Sakura gave a one-shoulder shrug. "Not horrible. Not good."

The weapons master shook her head. "I'm sorry."

"We all are," Sakura said quietly. She hesitated. "TenTen?"

"Hm?"

"Is it terribly wrong that I want to kill him?"

Her companion's eyes creased in puzzlement, and TenTen pushed up her mask to show it. "What?"

"I want to kill whoever is behind this," Sakura repeated. There was a hollow note to her voice, a vibration that shouldn't have been there. "I've never felt such an uncontrollable hatred. It's like poison, getting worse and more violent every second."

TenTen turned fully towards her. "Sakura, I understand. But we have to take him in alive for questioning, if we get him."

Sakura tore her own mask off, as well. "I know. But… I don't know if I'll be able to control myself. There's this part of me that always screams to do the wrong thing… it gets angry so easily. And now…" She swallowed. "It's like I'm suffocating. I want to kill this man more than anything I've ever wanted in my life."

TenTen glanced at her with a concerned frown. "Sakura, I can give you a psycho-analysis if you think you need it."

She sighed and shook her head. "No. I know exactly what's wrong with me. I'm just worried I won't be able to control it."

Shikamaru's lazy knock was easily discerned. "Yare, yare, what are you two doing in there? We still have a mission, even with tragedy."

TenTen looked uneasily at the door, then back to Sakura. "Hold up a minute," she called. She faced Sakura squarely, dark eyes looking into light. "Are you sure you'll be okay? And I mean really okay, not just fake happy-go-lucky."

The pink-haired woman hesitated for a long time, and then nodded, pulling on her mask and tying it behind her head, hiding her face from view.

"I'll try my best."

And the two girls walked from the room.

The group faced Neji, all masks turned towards his, all faces hidden. The captain spoke quietly. "I realize we're tired from the trip, and emotionally wrung out from the late Godaime's funeral. But I also need you five to realize that we are on a mission, and it is just as dangerous-" his eyes flicked to Sakura, "-even more dangerous. We have to find this guy quickly." A muddled "hai" came from the group, and Neji stared at them. "Since it's late, the Kazekage has decreed this as guard duty. TenTen and Lee, you're stationed at the Kazekage's tower. Shikamaru, Sai, you're at the border with the other Suna jounin. And Sakura, you and I will be patrolling the streets."

TenTen gave an involuntary start, and Neji turned his head. "Yes?"

She shook her head. "Nothing. Just flinched." But inside, the wheels in her mind were turning. Why did Neji always discreetly match himself with Sakura? Sure, their specialties complimented each other, but why always her? He'd always done just as well fighting with her or Lee. And wouldn't Sakura rather be matched with Sai, a man that was like a brother to her, than with someone she'd only just started talking to about a week before?

What was Neji thinking?

What was going on in that genius mind of his?

And then, the answer hit her like the proverbial ton of bricks: _Neji's in love with Haruno Sakura!_

And then another: _HOLY SHIT._

---

The first hour or so of patrol was done in absolute silence, something that bothered Neji greatly. It wasn't as if he didn't enjoy the quiet-- it was, actually, rather soothing to hear the desert winds soar above the city-- it was just that Sakura was _never_ intentionally silent. Something (he had a good idea of what) was very wrong, and for some, inexplicable reason he wasn't sure he wanted to admit to himself, he was extremely concerned about it.

But what, he reasoned silently as they passed a locked-up store, can you say to someone whose loved one has died? 'I'm so sorry' doesn't sound nearly good enough. 'She's in a better place' didn't hold for someone of Sakura's nonreligious background. And he'd already said 'she lived a good life', but did anyone really want to be reminded of someone's life when they'd just lost it?

So what could he do?

And then he knew.

By some uncontrollable force, his hand inched to the right. It hesitated a moment, rational thought breaking through, and then that rational thought was immediately pushed back to the far corners of Neji's brain and he grabbed her hand.

He felt her stiffen slightly, but then relax her muscles, and she tightened her grip on his hand. One of his thumbs slowly stroked her knuckles, sending a series of silent messages: _I'm here for you. We're all here for you. You're not alone in this._

Sakura turned her face to him, and in the glimmering moonlight he saw her mask shining, a beacon. "Arigatou," she muttered quietly.

He gave a little half-shrug. "What else could I do?"

She understood with a start that this was his way of comfort, and she smiled a little beneath the clean-cut hiding place of her mask. Maybe this thing she felt when she was with Neji could develop into something more… something better. Maybe it wasn't in her imagination-- maybe, just maybe, he felt it, too. And if so, what to do about it? _Nothing now,_ she reminded herself, _not during a mission._ But maybe afterwards… back in Konoha…

_And maybe not._

After all, the chances were slim to none that Neji felt the same way about her-- or, if he did, that he was brave enough to admit it.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Neji's hand on her arm. "Do you feel that?"

Sakura snapped to attention, tuning her senses by instinct. The desert wind, cold in the night, sent a chill down her spine as it sped through the streets. Store signs flapped and bells on doors rang out warnings. Behind her, a door slammed. She looked at her companion. "Aa."

"This isn't natural," he murmured. "A wind jutsu."

Sakura felt a sudden pain in her arm and looked down; there was a fresh cut on her right forearm, seeping blood. Her heart clenched. "There's chakra in it!"

Neji cursed as the wind built up in front of them with a rumbling sound. "This'll be a gust in a minute," he muttered. "Get behind a building, quickly! It'll tear us apart!"

The two ran frantically and ducked behind a ramen shop just as the gust tore through the empty streets. Slices of blue chakra, visible throughout the manmade windstorm, sliced through signs advertising sales; desert flowers blooming in the homes of Suna's people were decapitated, the buds falling to the ground and being whisked away violently by the wind. Sakura peered out from behind the building, shivering. "This is powerful," she murmured.

Neji said nothing, but his fists clenched.

_He's here for Sakura._

The thought came unbidden, but with it a startling truth: Sakura was in danger. She was being targeted by this murderer.

And they were out in the open.

Cursing himself for his stupidity, Neji ducked his head out. The wind had stopped, leaving a trail of debris behind it. Slow footsteps came from in front of them, and a silhouette appeared, indistinguishable for the dust its wind jutsu had created.

But Sakura stood up from behind him. Turning to hush her, tell her to get down, Neji suddenly froze; her mouth was open, as if she was in a trance. "Oh my…" she whispered, her voice trailing off.

Neji grabbed her wrist harshly. "Sakura, stay here! Don't you dare move!"

Sakura shook off his wrist with no apparent effort and started running towards the figure in the smoke, frantically so, her arms pumping and her legs carrying her as fast as they could. Neji cursed and sprinted after her, trying to get to her before she got to the mysterious figure in the dust, but she would get there first… she'd gotten a head start…

Sakura stopped short about a foot from the familiar silhouette, her mouth open slightly, her hands lifting up as if to trace the outline. She waved away the dust impatiently when the figure's hand caught her wrist in a searing grip of steel; she exhaled in disbelief as the smoke cleared from around its face.

"Sasuke."

Neji nearly fell.

The man caught himself in time and activated his Byakugan almost at once, his heart pounding. There was no way. There was _no way_. And, with relief, he found what his thoughts told him to be true. "Sakura, it's a kage bunshin," he called. "A distraction, most likely. Get back!"

But Sakura didn't move.

She stood there, her wrist trapped by the clone-Sasuke, the fake Sasuke, that little frozen smile still on her lips, as if the whole thing were a mildly amusing joke. "I know," she answered Neji calmly. "He's here to fight me."

Neji's whole world turned upside-down and backside-front. He heard his blood thumping in his ears. "Sakura, no! Something--" He looked around wildly in an uncharacteristic panic attack. "Something's not right here!"

As if waking from a daze at his words, Sakura blinked. Her green eyes cleared from a previously foggy state, and she wrenched her hand from the fake Sasuke's grasp; she reared her arm back and punched the clone square in the face with such force she nearly lifted her lower body into the air.

It didn't disappear.

Neji's eyes widened, and he rushed to action, grabbing Sakura's wrist and forcing her backwards as Sasuke bodily lifted himself and moved with his katana, rushing to impale her. The point of the sword just touched her stomach. Sakura lifted her eyes, horrified, and backed into Neji. "What is he?"

The Hyuuga prodigy was, for once in his life, totally stumped. His mind whirled as he placed himself in front of his petal-haired partner, cogs and wheels turning by design. "He's a kage bunshin, but… powerful. Too powerful for a normal clone."

The fake Uchiha smirked, and his voice emerged, a low, deep rumble. "Just checking up on you, Sakura."

Behind him, Neji felt the Haruno kunoichi stiffen.

"I wanted to see if you'd gotten as strong as you'd hoped to be," the clone continued, eerily calm. "Tsunade's gotten weaker, I see."

Neji braced himself. _Wrong thing to say._

But no amount of bracing could have prepared him for what came next.

With an inhuman roar, Sakura knocked the brown-haired captain over with a savage elbow to the arm; she leapt at the Sasuke clone with nothing short of murderous intent, fists raised in anticipation. The smirking fake twisted elegantly to avoid her killer punches and grasped her wrists, pulling them behind her back and forcing her in a kneel, putting her hands behind her back. "You remember this?" he cooed to her softly. "At the Chuunin Exams?"

Neji remembered. He remembered witnessing the Uchiha nearly pull off that poor Sound fool's arms, breaking them in numerous places with a savage delight that could hardly be seen without the urge to be physically sick. Sheer terror rising in him, Neji leapt to his feet, running towards the clone, hands outstretched for attack.

But Sakura was one step ahead of him; her replacement jutsu disappeared, and Sasuke was holding a broken signpost. The clone whirled just in time to put up his hands in a weak block to Sakura's midair kick, her green eyes darkened with… _what is that_? Neji wondered.

But as Sakura elegantly flipped from his hand and drew out three kunai, he realized it with a frozen horror:

_Bloodlust._

Sakura was outlined in white, her limbs coated in black chakra as her fists flailed and legs lashed out. The two once-teammates were locked in a battle Neji could barely follow with his eyes-- Sakura's punches connected with nothing but air as Sasuke spun to avoid them, and his precise blows were lost to Sakura's wild parrying. Sakura let out a roar of frustration and punched the ground, blowing Sasuke into the air as the rocks exploded beneath him. Leaping into the air, Sakura twisted her body forcefully with kicks and punches, forcing the clone higher and higher into the air each time until he flipped direction and grasped her shoulders tight. The two went in a spiraling downwards motion, something Neji recognized as Lee's Lotus move.

His shoulders tightened and adrenaline coursed through his veins as he took off, pushing himself into Sakura in an awkward catch before the girl hit the ground with such force it probably would have broken her back.

Sakura fought against Neji's protective grip, her murderous intent never lessening. "I'll show you weak, you pathetic bastard!" she raged, kicking out as Neji held her. "LET GO OF ME!"

And then the steel-on-steel _shing_ that came from Sasuke unsheathing his katana froze her blood in its tracks.

Charged with blue electricity and raging with the screams of a thousand birds, Sasuke's sword pointed menacingly at her chest. Out of surprise at the attack's rapidity, Neji dropped his hold, and Sakura sprang into action.

For a split second, Neji's world stopped.

She was heading straight for the sword.

She was going to run herself through.

"Sakura, STOP!"

She didn't stop.

Neji was already halfway towards her when she stretched her arms out, hands groping. They latched onto Sasuke's katana, the electricity charging up her arms, going down her torso to her legs. She grimaced in agony as the volts ripped through her. Neji grabbed her around the waist, feeling, for once in his life, helpless. "Sakura, let go! Let go, what are you doing, let GO!"

That's when he saw it.

The small current of water, evidently from a jutsu of some sort, was curling up her appendages, wrapping around her body, concentrating at her fists. Sasuke didn't seem to notice this, and he continued forcing electricity into her body. The sharp edges of the katana caused her gloves to split at the palms; blood leaked from the cuts. But still she would not let go.

Neji quickly formed hand signs, drawing water from the nearest well and wrapping it around his hands, once again holding Sakura tight. He felt a jolt of electricity as the cool liquid flowed from his skin to hers, mingling with her own bodily moisture. Her fists were coated in clear water, almost indistinguishable in the dim moonlight.

Sakura let out a little yelp of pain as the sword cut deeper, and Neji tightened his grip, whispering to her.

"Now."

As he leapt away, closing a tenketsu point from behind, Neji watched Sakura turn the katana around with a force and speed hardly befitting a kunoichi. Electricity danced across her water-coated fist, and she slammed it into Sasuke's stomach, making the clone's eyes go wide and cough with blood flying from its mouth and spattering the ground.

But it still stood.

Sakura was panting now, the bloodthirsty glow slowly dimming from her body, her eyes reflecting pain, loss, confusion. Her hands dripped blood. "What are you?" she muttered, horrified, backing up.

Sasuke's clone gave her a smirk that could freeze the blood; he sheathed his katana, holding her gaze. "The three tests have been passed."

Neji grabbed Sakura's shoulders, forcing her back, anger clouding his brain. Why, god damn it, hadn't he helped? "What the hell do you mean, the three tests?" he asked furiously.

The clone shifted his gaze to the moon, and then back to Sakura. It smiled slightly, an evil-looking smile that sent shivers up Neji's spine. "She's proved herself stronger physically," it said, "but mentally? She hasn't even begun to catch onto the trap I've made for her. The trap all of you are in right now."

Sakura froze. "A genjutsu?"

Sasuke chuckled mirthlessly. "That'd be the easiest answer, wouldn't it? But you of all people would know, Sakura, the easiest answer isn't the right one." He nodded to them. "I'll give you three days."

Neji stepped forward, confidence returning with the flood of confused anger roaring through his muscles, urging him to whip out his own katana and decapitate the Uchiha's clone right then and there. "You're in no position to be giving out orders, Uchiha," he snapped. "Three days for what?"

The clone reached into its shirt, and both Neji and Sakura automatically tensed. But the Sasuke-look-alike only drew out two photos, looking more than slightly amused, and threw them, face-down, on the broken ground. "To figure out my trap."

"And if we're not able to?" Sakura inquired, her voice stronger than she felt.

"What happened to those two Suna chuunin happens to all of you." He smirked. "Clock's ticking."

And then he was gone.

Quivering, Sakura clenched her fists and healed her hands, green chakra covering her fingers. She put a healed hand on Neji's arm to steady herself afterwards, trying to catch her breath. "God, it's like a bad horror film," she whispered with a shaky laugh.

But Neji was reaching for the photos, picking them up. He turned from Sakura and turned them over in his hand. Almost immediately, he pocketed them, turning his back to his partner. He felt bile well in his throat.

Sakura was beside him in a flash, frowning beneath her mask. "What were the photos?"

"Ah… nothing important. Some copies of the murdered chuunin," Neji answered quietly, distractedly.

Sakura frowned at him, but said nothing; instead, she turned to the spot the Sasuke doppelganger had vanished from. "It was a kage bunshin," she murmured, almost to herself, "so why didn't it disappear when I attacked it?"

"It wasn't an ordinary bunshin," Neji answered, turning to her. "Byakugan picked up traces of real, human chakra-- fearsome chakra-- living within the heart of the clone. It contains a part of a shinobi within it."

The rose-haired woman in front of him collapsed to the ground, sitting cross-legged on the rumbled earth and pushed up her mask. Neji noted with an increasing sense of worry that Sakura's face was pale and slick with cold sweat; she was shivering, though the night had gotten warmer after Sasuke's bunshin had passed through. "How could someone do that? Wouldn't that take a lot of energy?"

"An extreme amount," Neji agreed, nodding. "I'm not even sure that the shinobi chakra inside the clone was Sasuke's. It could have been anyone's. A bunshin is only a clone, after all-- anyone can make one of any person."

Sakura frowned, shaking her head, holding her fingers to her temples. "I don't understand. Why would Sasuke-- or whoever's behind this-- create a bunshin instead of approaching me directly? What's the point?"

Neji knelt by her, cupping her cheek with his hand. She looked up, slightly surprised, and noticed his mask was pushed back as hers was. His eyes showed pity and a shocking trace of warmth as he spoke to her quietly. "I don't know, Sakura. But for whatever reason, this clone is after _you_. It wants _you_ to solve this trap we're in somehow. It wants _you_ to figure all of this out. It wants this desperately enough that it would kill for it-- kill quite a lot for it."

Sakura's lower lip trembled. "No pressure," she whispered.

Neji scowled. "Sakura, this isn't the time to cry," he rebuked gently. "I have no intention of you working on this trap."

She looked up immediately, eyes alight with suspicion. "What?"

"I'll get Shikamaru on it immediately," he added.

"What, I'm not smart enough or something?" she hissed. "What's all this about? I thought this clone wanted me to solve it."

Neji frowned, pulling his hand back and stepping back as she stood on shaky legs. "There's no reason we have to listen to what the enemy tells us to do. Sakura, this is in your best interests. Look at you-- you're in a cold sweat, you're shaking. You've fainted once during this mission, and you've been getting paler and paler. This case is making you physically and mentally sick."

"I'm fine!" she protested hotly. "Who are you to call me sick? Last time I checked, I was the medic. And who says I'm mentally ill?"

The ANBU captain stood his ground, standing tall. "Sakura, I saw you. When you were fighting, you wanted nothing more than to kill that bunshin. _Kill it._ That's not like you, not at all. You were encased in black and white chakra; you had bloodlust in your eyes. That's not normal."

"Let me see the pictures, Neji."

Neji, taken aback, automatically answered with a: "No."

Suspicion grew in those jade eyes, and she glared at him. "Why?"

He hesitated. "You shouldn't see them."

"Neji-"

"Sakura, you're going mad! I'm not going to let you see pictures that could further that!"

"What's in them?" she shrieked. "I'm not going mad!"

In a rage, Neji tore the pictures from his pocket and shoved them in her face.

Sakura's heart dropped like a stone at the sight.

Tsunade. Decapitated. Lifeless hazel eyes.

Her mother.

The anger started up in her again, despite her exhaustion; she could feel the rage boiling in her blood like a snake's poison, squeezing her lungs and making her short of breath. She grabbed for the photos. "I'LL KILL HIM!"

Neji grabbed her wrist, putting the photos back in his pocket. "Haruno, you're out of line! You're going practically insane, and you're going home! I don't care if this is personally tied to your not, we are _not_ having you become a casualty because you're mentally ill!"

Fury sparked in her tired green eyes as Sakura poked him hard in the chest, forcing him back a step or two. "Look here, _Captain_, I am not mentally ill. Naruto's gotten bloodlust before-"

"Naruto has a _demon_ caged inside him. It's different!"

"SHUT UP!" she shouted, voice echoing throughout the empty city streets. "Naruto's not the only one with something else inside his mind! You don't-- you don't know what I am, you don't know what I think! You don't know me at all, you pompous prick, you only think you do!" She was breathing heavily, her chest heaving with every shout. Rage blinded her; every horrible thing she could ever say pooled in her throat and was on her lips with every second. "You don't know what kinds of pain I've had to go through, you don't know what losing a teammate, parents, and a surrogate mother-- you don't know what that's _like_! You-- you bastard! Fate, destiny… what good are those to me now? I hate it! I hate _you_!"

Neji watched her helplessly, watched her face contort in anger, watched spittle fly with all the fury she'd ever felt pouring from those desert-chapped lips like a frothing waterfall. "I hate that everyone I love dies! I hate that I have another self! I hate that I'm never quite as strong as I should be! I hate-- I hate that _everything and everyone I touch seems to go wrong_!" Tears caught the air as she shook her head, her mask hitting the ground and raising dust. Pink hair whipped from side to side, and Sakura clutched Neji's shirt like she had not two days before when hearing of Tsunade's death.

But this time, he didn't hold her.

And it broke her heart.

The tears poured rapidly now, down her cheeks, spilling onto her shirt like dissolving silver marbles. And she clutched at his unresponsive arms once, twice, three times-- willing for them to close around her and hold her tight and shoo her demons away. She moaned slightly and raked her fingers away from him, backing away, sniffing, sobbing. She looked up at his amazed face with glassy eyes and mussed hair, and she felt half-mad. "And I hate-" She choked, coughed, and looked up again, staring into his very soul… "I hate that I'm starting to fall in _fucking_ love with you."

Neji's eyes widened considerably.

She shook her head, covering her eyes with her hand. "I don't want what happened to Sasuke and Tsunade-shishou to happen to you." Sakura took a ragged breath, looking up at him determinedly, a spark of something he didn't quite recognize in her eyes. "I don't want that to happen to you."

And she fell.

Instinctively, he caught her, her dead weight forcing him to his knees on the Suna streets. He gently cradled her head in his lap, taking off his shirt, drying her tearstained cheeks with it. Neji brushed the hair from her forehead and picked her mask from the dirt, cleaning it against the cloth of his ANBU shirt. And he looked at her agonized features, the corners of her eyes pricking with new tears in her unconscious state, and he realized he wouldn't be able to keep her off the case.

It would kill her if she didn't work on it more than it might if she did.

And he cared far too much to let her die.

Like she cared far too much to love him.

"_Everything I touch seems to go wrong."_

"_I hate that I'm falling in love with you."_

"_I don't want that to happen to you."_

Haruno Sakura, he realized, was not insane. She was not mentally ill. She was troubled with an inner persona, a raucously turbulent past, and regrets that would follow her for her whole life. She was a much stronger person than he thought to brave through all that with her perpetual smiling and joking and friendliness… And now, everything she ever feared and everything she ever wanted was all colliding into her with too much force for one person. It was so much to take, so much to take, everything was too much to take right now.

Neji felt a sudden and uncharacteristic uprising of tenderness come from a knot in his stomach he'd been trying to ignore for days now. He straightened her clothes and hung her mask round her neck, his fingers lying at her pulse for a little more than was friendly and appropriate. Her heart beat normally, her blood carrying oxygen and power and _life_ to every corner of her body.

That life was in danger.

And Neji realized suddenly that he would do whatever he could to make sure it came out safely.

Smiling slightly despite the dire circumstances, Neji bent over, kissed her forehead, and waited for morning to come.

---

Author's Note: Whoo… this chapter's full of emotional complications, isn't it? Fun and challenging to write, though, I really enjoyed that…

And no. I know what you're thinking. It is not really Sasuke that's the bad criminal, but rather… well… it's complicated. You'll see towards the end.

So, three days left! Wonder if they'll make it in time…

--Dejeuner

(P.S.-- There's something wrong with my computer, and it's not letting me respond to your reviews. But I would like to say that I read them all, and that they're all greatly appreciated. I'm ecstatic all of you like this so much!)


	8. The Worst Kind of Triumph

**Nascence**

---

_VIII: The Worst Kind of Triumph_

---

Her head throbbed with every beat of the heart.

Moaning softly, Sakura rolled over in the bed, looking up. TenTen's futon was neatly made, and the desert sun was streaming in through the windows; obviously, they'd left her behind. The beginnings of rage tingled in her fingertips before her angry gaze happened to land on a sheet of paper on her bedside table. Curious and miffed, the kunoichi picked it up and unfolded it. The handwriting was unfamiliar.

_Sakura--_

_Neji brought you in at about 3 AM. What were you two doing, anyway? He was awfully secretive about it. But, in any case, he asked me to let you sleep in, and to write you this note to tell you he'll be with the Kazekage if you need anything. I hope you're feeling better-- and no, not just because I have to be paired with Shikamaru for scouting duty._

_I'll expect a full dishing session when I see you again!_

_--Ten_

Smiling slightly, Sakura tucked the note into her pocket and rubbed her eyes. So Neji had brought her in? Last night came rushing at her like water through a crack in stone, washing away all early-morning cheer. Three days, and the minutes were ticking past.

God, she hoped he hadn't heard that odd confession-- or at least, that he hadn't fully processed it. _Why the hell did I say that?_ she wondered with a groan as she slipped on her shoes and grabbed her mask. _Maybe I am going insane._

A quick sweep of the hairbrush, and she was out of the building, rubbing her forehead and hoping in vain her headache would go away. There was no use wasting chakra on it-- she hadn't healed herself fully after the night before, so she really had none to spare. She was in bad condition, and she could feel her muscles contract with every step. If someone was to attack her right now, her senses would probably fail her. She could be killed.

With this sobering thought in mind, Sakura jogged the rest of the way to the Kazekage's office, entering the building and quietly climbing the stairs. Maybe she could ask Gaara permission for Suna's private records. Though she doubted he'd grant it, it would help loads in her research.

_A bunshin of Sasuke. How much weirder can this get?_

She was infinitely glad Naruto was back in Konoha. Sasuke's appearance just would have troubled him further-- she'd have to ask Neji to keep it confidential. _It would only complicate things._

She knocked solidly on the familiar oak doors, and they opened almost at once; staring back at her was Neji. He was frowning. "I was hoping you would sleep longer."

Sakura looked him in the eye almost disbelievingly-- maybe he believed she was really insane, and that her slip of the tongue had been caused by sheer madness? "I have work to do," she answered softly. "TenTen's note said you'd be here. I thought I should check in."

Neji let her into the office and led her to a chair in the corner. Gaara looked up from a scroll, nodded to her, and then went back to reading. "I wrote a mission report of exactly what happened last night," Neji told her in an undertone, "but I think it would be best to keep it confidential. The bunshin is a bait that should not be thrown in here, not now."

Sakura nodded. "I was going to ask you to do that," she agreed, her voice still quiet, shaky. "And I was wondering if I could talk to the Kazekage."

"About?"

"Using Suna's archives. They may have something that could help."

Neji looked slightly frustrated. "I already told you, I don't like you working on this. You're already in more danger than any of us. Why get in the thick of it?"

She only managed a half-smile, which made Neji cringe inwardly-- how long had it been since she had given out a real smile?-- and shook her head. "I need to be in the thick of it. If I don't do something, I really might go mad." She glanced up, deep green eyes staring into his lavender. "You don't think I'm crazy, do you?" she whispered. "I'm not sure, myself."

He shook his head. "No, no, I don't think you're crazy. But you need to calm yourself. The last thing we need here is you, overworked."

Sakura ran a hand through her hair, working out the knots her brush had missed. "Neji, I don't even know what I'm looking for," she confessed flatly. "That damn bunshin was so cryptic, I… I just don't know. I'm lost."

Gaara's deep voice startled her, and she turned to face him when he spoke from in front of his desk. "What do you want?"

She squared her shoulders. "May I have permission to view Suna's private archives?"

The Kazekage folded his arms in typical Gaara-style and fixed icy jade eyes on her. "Why?"

"I'm sure you read that the bunshin gave me only three days to figure this all out. Looking at the archives might save our lives and the lives of Sunakagure."

Gaara sighed. "You're aware that it's unheard of for the archives even to be seen by foreign eyes?"

Sakura bowed her head slightly. "Aa, I know that. It's the same in Konoha. But this isn't just a library visit, Kazekage-san."

Neji leaned against the wall casually. "I'll give her my full backing on this, Kazekage-sama."

Gaara stared at her. "You're bold for asking this, girl."

"Always have been," she shot back, a sly tilt to her mouth.

"You'd better figure this out if I give you permission."

"I'll try."

"…I'll write you a pass."

Sakura smiled at him weakly. "Arigatou."

Neji turned to her. "Alright, I'll give you till five o'clock tonight. I expect you to give me a full report on everything you've learned, relevant or irrelevant, when we meet back at our residence."

She nodded. "Got it. Five o'clock."

He fixated her with a semi-curious, semi-warning glare. "Work hard, Sakura, but not too hard. If you collapse again I'm sending you home."

Sakura looked slightly affronted, but then it relaxed into a lazy half-grin. She'd figured out Neji enough to know that his little threats were ways of saying he actually did care for her… enough, at least, to keep her from killing herself by exhaustion. "Hai, Captain."

Gaara walked to them and handed Sakura a small, sealed scroll. "Show it to the guards, and they'll let you in," he instructed her in a monotone. "If you need help finding something, ask one of them."

Sakura nodded. "Arigatou," she repeated. "This will help a lot."

The redhead sighed. "I suppose. Down a floor, third door on your right."

---

The guards at the archive doors seemed rather surprised to see a pink-haired Konoha ANBU ask to be let it, but one glance at the Kazekage's permit and all misgivings melted away. They ushered her in, politely asking if she needed any assistance in a vaguely polite way. Sakura waved them away with a flick of her wrist and started browsing, looking through the towering file cabinets, the shelves that reached to the walls. They were in alphabetical order, from A-Z. Where to start?

_Everything begins with the Akatsuki._

Smiling slightly at the thought, she crossed the room to the 'A' shelves. A three-ring binder about as thick as her head dominated a cabinet, and she took it down, flipping to the index. _Genjutsu, page 336_. But when she got there, there was nothing-- only a list of known genjutsu Akatsuki members had used and what level of genjutsu the current members were supposed to possess.

Nothing.

Sighing, she shelved the book once more and crossed to the 'G' section, taking out a thick tome on genjutsu in general. She flipped through it numbly, her mind taking in what she already knew. _This isn't really helping… maybe this was all for nothing?_

She flipped to the back instead, checking out the index. _Amnesia… basics… traps?_ Curious, she turned to page 562.

_**Traps with Genjutsu**_

_There are many traps one can conduct with genjutsu. The most common would be scenery changes and such, but there are also more complicated ones that affect the mind of the opponent rather than confusing it._

_In this section we will list ways of trapping the opponent through the body. Affecting the actual mind of the opponent is S-class material that is not open to the public. Should you want to know more, ask a superior._

Sakura scowled. _Why even mention it, then?_

She left the book open on the table, just in case, and perused the rest of the shelves in 'G'. The titles were unhelpfully generic: Genjutsu, Fighting with Genjutsu, Common Genjutsu, Genjutsu Defense, and so on.

But there was one with no title.

Curious, Sakura took out the leather-bound tome, flipping it over. It wasn't a book at all… it was a scroll, rolled carefully within an old leather binder. She tried to lift the cover, but it wouldn't budge. _A sealing jutsu on a book?_

After a series of experimental chakra moldings she'd learned from Tsunade when her mentor hadn't wanted to deal with official business, Sakura managed to get the thing open. The scroll within it was old… very old, maybe from the beginning of Suna. It was wrapped in alternating layers of thick vellum and thin papyrus-- probably to keep it from harm-- and tied with a cord no thicker than her fingernail.

Sakura took off her gloves and carefully untied the cord, letting it fall away gently. Then she slipped the scroll from its papyrus-and-vellum hold and cautiously unrolled it. Part of it crumbled away in her fingers, disintegrating into dust, and she slowed her process, holding down the edge with the book she'd left on the table. Once it was as unrolled as the table was long, she set her gloves at the other end to keep it from rolling back up and started reading.

_Forbidden jutsu are usually thought of as ninjutsu-- powerful storms cast, raging fires created, horrible creatures summoned. But the most deadly of all forbidden jutsu has to lie within genjutsu-- within illusion._

_Because with an illusion, reality is twisted into something that can kill or drive insane. With in an illusion, nothing is as it seems. Nothing is truly real. You could touch a bat and it could become a butterfly, but a poison butterfly that kills you on contact. It all depends on the jutsu and the caster._

_Forbidden genjutsu can be used in many ways…_

Sakura read on, fascinated, her eyes glued to the scroll. When she finished reading that section, she rolled it up and read on, jade orbs never leaving the ancient writings. Each stroke carried a secret, it seemed, something she hadn't learned during Tsunade-shishou's lectures or Kurenai's careful hints. Hell, what Kurenai knew didn't cover three-fourths of this scroll!

_A particular unnamed attack targets the mind in the way that no other genjutsu does. A regular genjutsu warps reality to the opponent… this one creates an entirely new reality to whoever is in it. Technically, it's not even a genjutsu. It is unclassifiable. And what is most frightening about this is that it can be cast over a large group of people… the entire world, even. But it takes a frighteningly large amount of energy to sustain it for even a day._

_But there is a condition: the caster must be dead._

_Before death, the caster must store all the chakra needed for this enormous jutsu in the various chakra cavities and seal the tenketsu points so none escapes. And during death, they must open one point-- just one-- and let the chakra slowly leak out from there. If the person is skilled enough to use this jutsu, it will hold up for around a week at the longest._

_However, this is a jutsu in theory only. Nobody has ever succeeded in doing it successfully so far, and few want to try because of the fatality complex._

She felt her eyes go alight in wonder. Was this it? Could this possibly be the answer?

**There's no way it's that simple**, her Inner self admonished.

No, there wasn't. But… it was a possibility, wasn't it?

Sakura rolled the scroll back up and wrapped the protective vellum-papyrus around it, tucking it into her belt. Damn it, it _had_ to be right. What else could there be? A genjutsu that wasn't really a genjutsu. Something that created an entirely different world, an entirely different universe. It was crazy!

Suddenly, the magnitude of what was happening pressed upon her shoulders. If she didn't find a way to reverse this theory-jutsu, she was dead-- they were all dead. And the scroll didn't say anything about deflecting it. She raked a hand through her hair, grimacing. _I'll have to come back and search some more_.

Excited about her discovery, Sakura turned to the guards outside the archive's door. "Excuse me," she called. "What time is it?"

One man peered out a window, to a giant clock in the middle of the square. "Around four-thirty."

Sakura smiled slightly. "Arigatou." _I'll be a little early and surprise Neji-san._

Oh, Neji.

_Either he's deaf, he's ignorant, or he's trying to keep it to himself for some reason,_ Sakura thought rather miserably as she left the room. He hadn't mentioned her inadvertent confession so far, nor had he made any move to treat her as more-than-friend. So he either hadn't heard it, or-- something inside her ached just to think of it-- he chose not to hear it.

The petal-haired ANBU pulled down her mask to cover her face as she entered the city streets, crossing quickly to their residence building. There was no use thinking about it, and she chided herself for it. Distraction from this kind of pressure could only result in death, and that was something she did _not_ want to be responsible for.

She wasn't sure she could be able to take it.

So she burst into Neji's room with the first cheerful smile in days, flashing the scroll in his face.

"We got him."

---

Neji gazed at her, almost amazed, after her thorough explanation. "Sakura, this is incredible," he allotted, taking the scroll from her carefully, "and I hate to dampen your enthusiasm, but this… well, this is just a theory." He frowned, turning his eyes to the scroll as if to turn away from her disappointment. "Who in the world would be powerful enough to pull something like this off? A Kage, maybe, but what kind of Kage would do this to a Konoha ANBU squad? What person, at the cusp of his or her death, would cast this thing on _us_? What's the point?"

Sakura bit her lip. "Look, Neji, I know it sounds farfetched… it really is. It's just as you said-- a theory. But… there's a possibility, right? There has to be someone out there that's powerful enough to cast this kind of jutsu. There _has_ to be. Every generation's stronger than the next, right?"

Neji shook his head. "You'd think, wouldn't you? But just think, Sakura. Give me three people that aren't Kage that could accomplish this thing."

She scowled. "That's not the point!" she snapped.

"Sakura, I'd love to hear anything you can suggest," Neji said quietly, his tone flat and logical. "But there's no reasonable explanation for this. It might not even be possible, and I'm sure as hell not finding out myself."

"'No reasonable explanation'?" Sakura looked at him in almost an amused exasperation. "This is not a reasonable world, Neji. I can clone myself and summon a giant slug with a little bit of blood. I'm done with reason and logic… I've been done with it since I was thirteen. Reason didn't work when I tried to keep Sasuke from leaving. Logic didn't do me so well when my parents kicked me out of the house when I became jounin. And facts did absolutely nothing for me when my tutor, my surrogate mother, one of the Legendary Sannin, was murdered." Her eyes were a fiery kind of green, sparks of gold shining with determination. "I am willing to believe a theory if it keeps us from being killed. Is that good enough for you?"

Just then, Neji made the mistake of looking at her.

His eyes, cold, flat, logical… they widened imperceptibly, and subconsciously, his grip on the scroll loosened. "You'd stake everything you had on this scroll?" He wasn't sure why he said it. "Even though there's no proof?"

"I _am_ staking everything on it, Neji. I'm staking lives."

_It is little mistakes like this that crumble the walls._

And Neji kissed her.

Sakura's eyes widened to the size of rice balls. All that she felt was his mouth on hers. His lips, she realized vaguely, were strangely soft. Hers were tingling. The kiss wasn't rough or passionate or anything, but… it was a kiss. Soft. Calming. Lip-and-lip, no open mouth, just the two of them trying to pour every emotion they'd felt over the past two days in one five-second contact.

He broke away from her hastily and turned his head, ashamed and ashamed of being ashamed.

Sakura sat there for about twenty seconds, staring at him with two fingers to her lips.

Neji shook his head. "I'm sorry."

"Neji--"

"This is no time or place for… for that." He stood, awkwardly, as if against his will. "Your research was successful. It's definitely a possibility."

She tried to smile, tried to laugh, but felt herself so utterly _lacking_ that even a simple tilt to her lips seemed to take a muscle strength that was beyond her.. "It's a possibility. Neji--"

He shook his head gravely, and she saw with the turn of his head that there was a pinkish tint to the lift of his cheekbones. He was not looking at her; he wouldn't look at her, he couldn't. It was all too much, too fast. "Good work. I'll ask the Kazekage to summon a genjutsu expert, and you can look it over with them."

Neji made his way to the door, and Sakura felt herself tear in two. "No, Neji, stop! Please stop!"

He didn't stop. He opened her bedroom door and stepped out. For a moment, a moment that stretched the thinnest of invisible wires between them, he hesitated, stepped a fraction of a step back, as if to turn to her and say it wasn't just a joke. But then he turned back, the foot stepped forward, and he closed the door behind him.

Sakura stared after him like an idiot, her mouth hanging open. How… what… how the hell could he do this to her? She grabbed the scroll and furiously rolled it back up, paying no heed to its age or fragility, and little bits of it broke off and fell to the floor. Damn him. Damn all of them. How could he just kiss her and walk away? How could he… 'no time or place', her ass. He was scared, the freaking coward.

So was she.

She cast her green-eyed gaze to the rolled-up paper in her hands and nearly ripped it in two.

She got it.

So why didn't this feel like a victory?

---

Author's Note: Damn it. I really hate this chapter. It's short, it's sappy, and it's the worst writing I've ever done since I was five. Ergh. I really apologize for its crappiness and lack of length, but it's been a pretty hectic month. I've got a lot going on right now, and it was really all I could do to crank out this piece of... well, this chapter.

Keep in mind that it might be a while before I update again. I really just put in this chapter so I wouldn't murder myself... I get really, really cranky when I don't write. I haven't even had time to work on my short story. Ew.

Well, cheers, and thanks for being so patient, guys. I'll work as hard as I can to get the next chapter up and awesome.


	9. Pastel Faith

**Nascence**

---

_IX: Pastel Faith_

---

"Your teammate," Sakura whispered to TenTen as they stretched in their room the next morning, "is confusing as shit."

"Don't I know it." The weapons mistress sighed through her hamstring stretch. "What brought this on? Something happen today? You're looking a little down."

Sakura shook rosy hair out of her eyes, bringing both arms behind her and forcing them up. "It… it was really weird. TenTen, I figured something out. Something that could change this whole mission, something that could get us all home alive. Technically, you're not supposed to know. But it's something important."

The brown-haired woman straightened and sat carefully on the edge of her bed, straightening the straps of her tank top. "I think I should be sitting down for this."

Sakura chuckled weakly. "He kissed me."

TenTen slid off the bed and onto the floor, choking on her own saliva. After a moment of panting and a couple thorough back-poundings from Sakura, she struggled back onto the bed, clutching the bedcovers like stabilizers. "What?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "We were talking about it, and he asked me if I was willing to stake everything on this one thing. I told him I was… was willing, I mean. And then he just… he just kissed me."

TenTen squealed in an uncharacteristically girlish manner.

With a flap of her hand and a roll of her deep green eyes, Sakura dismissed the excitement, though her eyes glimmered with something that looked like barely-hidden pain. "It was just a kiss, TenTen. Just a touch of the lips. And he turned away right after that, said something about 'not the right time or place'."

"That sounds distinctly Neji-like," TenTen commented softly. "He hurt you, didn't he?"

Sakura frowned. "It's not like I couldn't have seen it coming. I mean, for the most part, he was right. It isn't the time or place to be starting romantic relationships. And I'm… well, I'm not exactly the best person to start them with."

"Neither is he."

She nodded in grudging acceptance. "Yeah, I guess not. But, TenTen… he's… I don't know what to say. I mean, on one hand, I hate him so badly I can almost taste it. It's like blood in my mouth. But on the other hand, I've never felt so completely able to be myself around any other person. He's like my support. My barrier."

The weapons expert had been listening with a little smile on her face, half pity and half happiness. "Sakura, he may have hurt you. But maybe you should both… I don't know. Give each other a couple more chances? He probably hasn't even had hormones for the past couple years. Apart from me, this is his first time really interacting with one of the opposite sex. And you…" TenTen grabbed her hand. "You're great, Sakura, but you've got such a protective wall around you from Sasuke that penetrating it could wind you up with a series of broken bones. You're both a little out of touch on the romance front."

Sakura pulled her hand back, examined it as if in wonder as to how it was there. "I know that. I just… is it so wrong to be thinking about stuff like that during…" Her face looked wan. "During a time like this?"

"It's a mission, Sakura," TenTen said with a small, amused smile. "It's not the end of the world." She got up from the bed and walked to the door.

_It feels like it._ "TenTen."

"Yeah?"

Sakura stared firmly at her hands, refusing to let any emotion seep through her voice. "If you were in grave, grave danger… you'd want to know, right?"

TenTen turned away from the door.

"I can't keep this away anymore. I have to tell someone."

Chestnut hair floated disobediently into her eyes, and TenTen brushed it away. "Explain."

"We'll all be killed unless I figure out his trap."

"Who's he?"

Sakura rubbed her cheeks in frustration. "I don't know. That's what so frustrating." She paused. "Last night, someone created a bunshin in the form of Sasuke. The bunshin came with a tremendous wind jutsu… that 'windstorm' that wrecked those houses you probably saw today wasn't a natural windstorm. I don't know how I knew, but I knew that the bunshin was sent to fight me. So I fought him, and… I can't really remember much after that," she lied. There would be telling later. But not now, not when she had so much happening in her head.

TenTen's hands trembled slightly. "And… he told you to figure out some sort of trap?"

Sakura nodded. "This trap… this trap we're all in right now." She spread her hands wide, trying to push into her friend the magnitude of this. "Our world in a non-genjutsu." She shook her head and her hands fell in her lap. "He'll kill us if I don't figure out how to stop it."

"You're close, though?"

"Close." Sakura looked away for a moment. "Yes, I guess I'm close. But that's not good enough, TenTen… I only have two days left. And with everything that's going on in my head… I feel like I'm about to explode."

The brown-haired woman stared at her for a moment, her lips pressed tight together. TenTen had always been good at hiding her emotions. But then she slid off her bed and sat next to Sakura, grabbing her hand. "Sakura, I trust you," she said simply. "I'd trust you with anything. I believe that whatever you do, you'll make the right choice. And if you somehow don't, I'll be one of the first to forgive you." She paused. "Whatever… whoever… whoever this guy is, he's insane. He's homicidal. And that's not exactly something that's easy to deal with. I think you're doing a marvelous job as it is, just keeping it close. I'm not sure I could do the same if I was in your place. Seeing an image of Sasuke… _fighting_ an image of Sasuke… I can only imagine the kind of stress you're in."

TenTen smiled slightly. "But I'm glad you told me, Sakura, I really am; and I'll try to help in any way I can. Does that… does that make you feel any better at all?"

When Sakura looked at her, her jade eyes were dry, and TenTen's were tearing up. But the gratitude and… and absolute _relief_ that was etched on her features was unmistakable. Sakura pulled the older woman to her in a hug, and TenTen returned it with equal friendship. "Thanks."

"No problem," TenTen whispered, blinking her eyes dry. "And as for the Neji thing…" A ghost of a smile flitted phantomlike across her face as muffled 'good morning!' shouts from Lee seeped through their door. "Don't worry about him. He'll come around."

Sakura laughed hollowly, and they both stood. "Yeah." Lee rapped on their door ("Day has begun, Sakura-chan, Ten-chan! Let us greet the morning!")

"Sometimes, Sakura, your lack of faith makes me want to hit you." ("The sun has risen quite beautifully-- it brings tears to my eyes! Let us enjoy it together!")

"And sometimes your overabundance of it does the same." ("Ah, I feel the morning magic of youth surging through us all!")

The two smiled at each other ("The flowers are singing their glory!"), opened the door, and yelled a hearty "SHUT UP!" to an extremely bug-eyed Rock Lee.

Day had begun.

---

Neji found it excruciatingly hard not to look at Sakura.

This astonished him. Had he really been looking at her so much before he'd kissed her? Now, it seemed like every time he heard her little whisper of a laugh, or heard her reproach Sai for some improper comment, there was something in him that made him want to whip his head around and see her do it. Like a muscle reflex. It took all of his self-control to keep himself from getting whiplash.

She sighed, and his neck twitched.

_Shit. This isn't working._

Neji stood from their breakfast table and leaned against it, hands spread flat on its smooth surface, and waited for them to quiet. They did, almost immediately, and he cleared his throat. Was it his imagination, or was the room warmer? "Sai and Shikamaru, Temari-san has requested your presence at the front gates for advice on defense against this killer. I've arranged a folder for you on all we know of him or her. Be sure to take it with you. Lee, you and I are going to meet with the Kazekage on analysis work. And TenTen…" He paused. "TenTen, you'll go with Sakura to the archives and try to find out all you can on this new theory. I presume she's told you about it," he added pointedly, hoping rather unfairly to put some slice of shame into Sakura for telling it.

But when he looked at her (mistake number two), she stared right back at him, her face blank and unmoving, those eyes all but totally ignoring him. _You hurt me_, they screamed, _and I'm not going to take that._

(Actually, Sakura's inner self was screaming something more along the lines of: **Hyuuga, your ass is **_**mine**_)

Sakura stood calmly despite her inner raging and brushed herself off. She was almost to the door when Sai's hand on her arm stopped her. "Woah, woah, Ugly," he said. "Hold up a minute. TenTen, can I borrow the Hag for a sec?"

TenTen nodded, slightly amused, and Sakura let herself be pushed back. "Sai, what d'you want?" she hissed. "There really isn't time."

He stared into her with such depth, such uncharacteristic seriousness, it took her breath away and all of her anger with it. "What's wrong, Ugly? You're acting all calm. And I know you well enough to know that that means rage is lurking beneath the surface."

Sakura scowled at him. While it was indisputable he was right, she hated being so easily read. She glanced up at him. "I'll tell you another time, Sai, but for now I really have to get going." She forced a smile to her lips, tilting her head slightly.

Sai didn't smile back. "You can't fool _me_ with fake smiles, Sakura," he said, his tone even. He relinquished her shoulder and took her hand instead. "I know Naruto would be worried if he was here. So tell me instead, aa?"

Sakura sighed lightly. "Yes. Later."

"Later."

He released her arm, and she wheeled around, running after TenTen and determinedly averting her eyes from the handsome ANBU captain at the front of the room.

---

TenTen slumped, falling face-first onto the scroll she was examining. "Sakura," she moaned, "I don't know how you do it."

"It's called focus," the pink-haired woman murmured as her eyes flickered over a column of words. "You could probably use some."

"I only need focus on the battlefield," TenTen protested with a sheepish grin. "Other than that, my mind wanders."

Sakura looked at her, then grinned slightly and turned back to her scroll. "This _is_ the battlefield. Only more boring."

"Amen to that." TenTen sighed, rolled up her scroll, and stood to find another one. "Give me some keywords."

"Genjutsu, death, sacrifice, illusion, bunshin." She shrugged her shoulder, her attention now focused fully on her friend. "I'm sorry it's so general, but it's all we have. After all, it's just a theory."

TenTen cracked her knuckles and fought back another sigh, browsing the shelves with tired eyes. "Genjutsu in Death?"

Sakura shrugged a second time, going back to her scroll. "Why not?"

Her dark-eyed companion took the heavy scroll down from its shelving and carried it with some effort to their table, kneeling and setting it down. "This thing weighs a ton," she grunted.

A waver caught Sakura's senses-- the smallest little ripple, like the kind a finger dipped into a pool makes. "Wait," she said, almost subconsciously.

"Wait, what?"

Sakura scooted over to her, peering at the rolled-up material. "There's a genjutsu on this."

TenTen frowned. "How can you tell?"

"I just can. Genjutsu sensing is different from taijutsu and ninjutsu." Sakura waved a hand about a hair's-breadth width above the scroll. A peculiar shimmer, almost invisible, snaked up her fingers. TenTen inhaled sharply in a gasp, and Sakura put her hands together. "_Kai_." Nothing. "Whoever put a genjutsu on this didn't want it to be read."

"Can you break it?" TenTen asked, staring at the scroll.

"I think so." Sakura frowned, chewing at the corner of her lip for a moment, and then put her hands over the scroll, fingers touching oh-so-lightly on the delicate paper. She frowned, and wordlessly formed a couple of hand signs. She touched the middle of the scroll, and a sudden invisible force rushed from the scroll, flipping her hair back and raising TenTen's shirt to her midriff. "It should open now."

TenTen unrolled it and smoothed it out carefully. Sakura moved to give her space, and the brown-eyed girl studied the characters while Sakura watched, both with identical frowns etched on their faces. "This is really…" TenTen shook her head as she finished. "Really creepy."

Sakura frowned. "Read it to me."

TenTen cleared her throat, looking more-than-mildly disturbed. "'Dear Sakura-- I hope this message finds you in good health, and I hope I haven't put you in too much stress. You have, I believe, two days before your ANBU squadron-- and, indeed, anyone that's ever seen you-- dies. So I thought I might give you a little clue.

"'I know you've found the theory of reality manipulation. But, alas, you have no idea how to create it-- or to cure it. Or who, even, is doing this to you. So I'm going to give you a couple of little hints.

"'You've had close contact with this kind of jutsu before, Sakura-- many times. I'm surprised you haven't recognized it yet.

"'And yes, the scroll you read was correct. The caster of this jutsu does have to be deceased. I'm writing to you from the grave, it seems.

"'And finally, Sakura, to answer a question you've probably been asking yourself from the very beginning. _Why me? Why this? Why now?_

"'I wanted to test you, Sakura. I wanted to make sure you're really all that you seem. I want to justify to you everything I've done. Or did. Does this make any sense? Probably not.

"'Good luck with this. I hope you succeed-- it would, after all, be quite a shame if your friends died. And Tsunade… well, I apologize for that. My messenger lost control of himself. I believe you two have met.'" TenTen looked up at her. "It ends there."

Sakura said nothing. Her head was in her hands, her fingernails digging into her scalp.

TenTen gazed at the scroll. "You know, for a murderer, this person seems… almost friendly."

Sakura bit her lips. "I was thinking that, too. Isn't that messed up? Tell me the hints again."

She read them off. "You've been in close contact with this reality manipulation stuff. The person that cast it is, indeed, quite dead. And his 'messenger', who you've met, killed Godaime-sama."

"The Sasuke bunshin," she whispered.

"I think you should take this to Neji."

Sakura looked up immediately. "Why not both of us?"

TenTen rolled her eyes. "I'm not the one that has relationship problems with him, okay? Giving him this gives you an excuse-- which I know you privately desperately crave-- to talk to him for a moment. Maybe resolve things." She began to briskly roll up the scroll, pulling a wire from her pocket and tying it around the rolled paper. She tightened it with her teeth and tied the wire into a neat bow. She handed it to Sakura. "Please. I can't stand it when you mope."

The fact that TenTen had the bravado-- or foolishness-- to joke about teenage hormones in a situation like this made Sakura want to both laugh and cry all at once. Instead, she whacked her friend over the head with the tied-up scroll and stuck her tongue out. "Fine. But I expect you to go see Lee while I'm gone."

TenTen looked aghast. "How'd you know?"

"What, you weren't trying to hide it, were you?" Sakura smirked at her.

TenTen flushed a brilliant red, and Sakura just barely dodged the shuriken that flew straight towards her, sticking in the wooden doorframe her head had been leaning on only a quarter of a second before.

---

Sakura stood in front of the imposing dark-wood doors with a pounding heart. Her fingers involuntarily tightened their grip on the scroll as she heard the voices filtering through-- Lee's overly-dramatic one, Neji's calm, collected baritone, and Gaara's grunts of affirmation or negativity, probably accompanied by a gruff frown.

_He's in the Kazekage's office. There is no WAY I can interrupt a meeting like that._

**This is important.**

_Not that important. It can wait--_

**No, it really can't. You only have about 36 hours left until Doomsday, remember? And we wouldn't want hot-Hyuuga-boy getting decimated, would we?**

…

_Fuck you._

Sakura knocked.

Lee, unsurprisingly, got to the door first. He pulled it open with a flourish, totally undaunted from the shouting he got in the morning, and beamed at her so hard she felt she'd go blind. "Sakura-san!" he exclaimed, and Sakura winced as Neji turned his head, then immediately turned it back. She could KILL Lee for his enthusiasm. "To what do we owe this honor?"

Sakura pasted on an amused smile. "TenTen and I found something we think Kazekage-san and Neji-san would like to see."

Gaara motioned for her to come in, and she pushed past the ever-grinning Lee, walking directly up to the Kazekage's desk and putting the scroll down, bowing a little bit. Gaara looked up to the bowl-cut man at the door, and Neji took the hint. "Lee," he said quietly, "can you wait outside for a moment?"

"Certainly! Not one person shall get through this door while I am guarding it!"

The door closed, leaving Sakura feeling totally and utterly trapped between the two most imposing men she'd ever known in her life.

"What did you find?" Gaara asked, his voice slightly quiet and very pained. Sakura looked up and realized with a start that he had recognized her fear-- though he no doubt had no idea why she was afraid-- and was trying his absolute hardest to make her relax.

Gaara certainly didn't do that for everyone.

The thought cheered her a little, and she unrolled the paper in front of him, addressing him and not Neji as she spoke. "There was a genjutsu on this scroll, which I hadn't seen yesterday. It was a relatively complex genjutsu, something not incredibly hard; but I doubt anyone that wasn't an A-rank, minimum, in genjutsu could have seen through it. Anyway, I unlocked it, and… well, you can see what it says. He gave me hints this time."

Gaara read through it, and his frown deepened. When he was finished, he handed it to Neji, who read through it as well. "You've been in close contact with this before?" he asked.

"Apparently," Sakura said rather flippantly, biting a hangnail. "But I can't for the life of me figure out what it is. I've been in close contact with hundreds of genjutsu."

"But this isn't really a genjutsu," Neji voiced calmly. "Keep that in mind. It's a theory-- something this guy calls 'reality manipulation'. It doesn't just create the illusion of a warped reality, it creates an _actual_ warped reality."

Sakura didn't look at him. "Also, whoever wrote this is deceased. Which means that he either wrote it before he died and gave it to the Sasuke bunshin to put in the archives, or he's writing to me from the grave. The latter, obviously, is impossible. Chakra lives on; brain, heart, lungs don't."

Gaara pursed his lips. "Is it possible that this chakra is not so well contained? The caster must not have perfect chakra control if his bunshin went so out of control as to kill the Hokage."

"Few people have perfect chakra control, Kazekage-sama," Neji intoned. "But this person must have about the second-best in the known world… I mean, to produce a jutsu of this size and force, plus a bunshin." His voice held something akin to admiration. "It must have been a great shinobi."

The three stood in silence for a moment. Neji stole a glance at Sakura, and immediately mentally kicked himself for it-- he'd done the exact same thing the moment she'd strode into the room. Worse, he knew she'd seen him. What the hell was he doing, ogling her right after he'd said he didn't have time for romantic relationships? What the _hell_ was he thinking?

Gaara put his fist down rather forcefully on his desk, startling the two out of their respective reveries, and strode to his office window, putting his hands behind his back. "Hyuuga, you and Haruno have the most information about this criminal out of anyone in your group. I'd like you two to compile a folder of what you know, what you suspect, and possible ways to stop this jutsu."

A tingling feeling of alarm spread throughout Sakura's body. Red flags wove like crazy.

Neji hesitated. "Temari-san has already requested the same thing of Sai and Shikamaru--"

"She requested defensive strategy. I'm looking only for raw facts."

The ANBU captain paused, then nodded almost resignedly. "Hai, Kazekage-sama."

Gaara turned. "Haruno?"

If looks could kill, Gaara would be a dead man. She stifled a groan and pushed back her pastel-pink hair in a gesture of supreme irritation.

"Hai."

---

The silence between them as they sat in the empty briefing room was taut and tense, a rubber band stretched thin and long between them that threatened to break at any second.

Neji vowed he would not talk first.

Instead, he satisfied himself by watching her hand move furiously along the papers, filling out forms, making notes, marking what needed to be marked. All the evidence they'd ever gathered was spread between them: Tsunade's pictures, copies of Tsunade's letters, the pictures they'd gotten off the rogues, a bloodied bandage from when Sakura had fought the Sasuke bunshin, the most recent letter, the medical files from the murdered chuunin, et cetera.

She had a smudge of ink on her nose. Quite adorable.

Holy _fuck_, what was he saying? Adorable? His uncle was dying a slow and painful death, right now-- the word _adorable_ was simply not something a Hyuuga had in his vocabulary.

The thought of his uncle dying a slow and painful death brought him momentary comfort; but, alas, it was not to be, because Sakura chose that very moment to look up from her writing. Immediately, her eyes narrowed. "What?" she snapped.

That tongue could soothe and draw blood at the same time.

Neji cleared his throat and felt a vague and horrible satisfaction that he hadn't been the one to speak first. "If I could apologize, Saku-"

"Captain, with all due respect, shut up. I'm busy." She turned back to her work.

"I really don't understand--"

"Hyuuga-san, I'm working here."

Neji felt his anger build. "Sakura, listen to me."

"No."

She was such a child. "Sakura, you aren't listening."

"Damn right I'm not."

"This is silly. I'm just trying to--"

"I don't give a damn."

"Sak-"

"NO."

"SAKURA!"

He grabbed her wrist and tore the pen from her hand. She immediately looked up at him in surprise and rage, completely prepared to tell him off, and suddenly stopped. His chest was heaving, and his eyes, usually so calm, were a fiery pearl color, radiating heat, daring her to interrupt him again. And for once, she deflated; she was struck dumb by the sight of him in such rage.

Neji sighed. "Will you listen to me now?"

She was silent.

…now what was he supposed to say?

"Damn it all, Sakura… I just…" He searched for words that just couldn't come into his head. He felt uncharacteristically flustered. "I don't know… it was just a-- a spur of the moment thing, you were so angry, and… I couldn't… I had no idea what I was doing… I…" He involuntarily tightened his hold on her wrist, trying to collect his thoughts. He felt like Hinata during one of her worst days. "I… honestly, I have no idea what to say. I'm sorry for hurting you… I-- I mean, I know I did, and… well…" He paused, breathed, closed his eyes as if bracing for the punch of all punches as he spoke his next words. "It just felt like something right, something I had to do before it all ended," he finished lamely. "There were only three days left."

To his surprise, death didn't come at him in the form of a fist. He tentatively tried to elaborate.

"I never dreamed… the repercussions, I mean." He breathed out. He was still holding her wrist. But for some reason, he didn't let go. "I didn't _want_ to start looking at you that way."

The silence between them once again stretched elastically, and he let go of her wrist. Neji felt like he was digging a hole in which there was no way out… no way back up. To his shame, he felt the back of his neck grow warm in a blush, and he bent his head over his own papers, trying to cover up for the spillage of emotion in his usual brusqueness.

Sakura's voice startled him.

"I was scared, too."

He looked up, too quickly for his liking, but she wasn't looking at him; on the contrary, her eyes seemed rather fixated on a speck on her paper. She rubbed at it with a chewed-down fingernail and continued to write. But Neji saw the small hint of pink on her cheeks she was trying like a thirteen-year-old to hide; he saw the way she was outlining the same sentence twice.

But he wouldn't let himself feel any joy whatsoever about that; it was his mistake, and it was up to him to undo it. If anything, he needed to repair their friendship-- and maybe the rest could come later. So he grabbed a blank sheet of paper and a pen. Clearing his throat, he stared pointedly at her. "Sakura. The list?"

She looked up at him and gave a little nod, shoving her paperwork to the far side of the desk.

Neji held up the paper. "What do we know?" he asked, making a bullet point.

"He is using the theory of reality manipulation."

Neji wrote it down, and under it put two things: _great amount of chakra (enough to spare for a bunshin)_ and _nearly perfect (bunshin went out of control, killing Hokage) chakra control_. "He planted pictures on rogues and used them as a distraction." More scribbling.

Sakura thought a moment, her pen tapping at the bottom of her chin in thought. "I've been in close contact with this kind of jutsu before. Maybe with Kurenai-sensei? Tsunade-shishou? Anyone else you know who's an expert in genjutsu I might have met?"

Neji gave a noncommittal shrug and wrote this bit of information down, as well. "He's recently died."

"He's absurdly clever."

"He's one of the most powerful shinobi we've ever encountered."

Sakura shot him a slightly amused, slightly irritated glance. "That reveals a lot."

"So did 'absurdly clever'," Neji shot back. Ignoring her scowl, he rummaged around the mess on the table and separated the numerous pictures they'd collected, putting them in chronological order. "We got the murdered chuunin first, then the glimmering red one," he murmured, putting them in their respective places. "Then we have Hokage-sama."

Sakura moved from her chair across from him and stood next to him instead. Gradually, she compiled everything into chronologically-ordered groups. The notes Tsunade had gotten: one from Gaara and one faked to look like Gaara's. Then the pictures of the murdered chuunin and their medical files. Next came the pictures of Tsunade's body, and then the bandage. Finally, she set out the latest scroll and their handwritten list. "Okay. What can we do with all of this?"

Neji frowned at the array of information. "Have you done a medical examination on that bandage? The blood might reveal something."

Sakura put a hand to her forehead. "Shit, I forgot about that. I had a lot on my mind that day. I'll do it right now if you want."

Neji nodded, marveling at how they were both working so hard to make this normal, and she took the bandage to another table, making hand signs and concentrating hard.

He turned his face back to his own table, studying the various clues. Frightening pictures, mysterious pictures, taunting pictures. What were they all for? He reread Gaara's message and the forged note and shook his head in disgust; they were very different, he could see it now. He took the forged note and the newest scroll and set them together. Why was the tone so menacing in the first and so friendly in the second? Could it be this person had split personalities, or was unsure of how they really felt? _Some sort of psychological disorder must have affected this person_, Neji thought, tracing a line down the scroll with a calloused index finger. _It's either that or he's just trying to confuse us further._

The Sasuke bunshin. What did that mean? It was probably just a distraction… something to put Sakura into an even more violent state of confusion. But maybe--

"Neji?"

Sakura's voice was excited. He ran to her. "Did you find anything?"

She nodded, her eyes glimmering with triumph. "Something. It's small, but it's something. I got a lock on his chakra signature. Bunshin carry a glimmer of their creator's chakra, after all."

Neji nodded, a swelling feeling expanding in his chest. "What is it?"

Her hands were glowing a cool, mint green, a shade lighter than her eyes. She grabbed his hand, and it was enveloped in the same color. His fingers tingled with the shared chakra. Sakura touched the pad of his finger to a spot on the bandage.

Immediately, Neji felt it. It was consuming, all-powerful stuff that seemed to invigorate his very core. He had only felt this way at his very best, most important battles; Kidoumaru, for instance. Sakura's hand was shaking from the very feel of it-- or maybe it was the excitement of the discovery? It was hard to tell. Neji pulled his hand back, instantly losing the pleasantly cool feeling of Sakura's chakra and the hardcore sparkling of the other's. But the feeling stayed; he felt simply ecstatic, if such a thing could even be said for him. He found it difficult to speak, and stood there like a fool with his mouth open for about ten seconds before Sakura spoke.

"I know," she said, and he felt the awe in her voice, too. She was silent for a second, but he could see her mind was working furiously. "Doesn't it feel familiar?"

Neji frowned slightly, still trying to shake off the incredible feeling surging through his body. "I'm not sure," he said honestly. "It's too raw, too un… well… I don't know. Untamable? It's hard to tell. But I can tell you that I'll know it when I feel it from now on."

Sakura worked her hands through her hair again, forcing it back. "I know. But… it must have something to do with me being in close contact with this jutsu. It all goes back to what I was saying a week ago… I know this. I just have to remember how and what I know."

Neji glanced once more at the table behind him, and then looked back at Sakura; she was shaking slightly from the effort that complicated jutsu had cost her, and she'd been up since dawn working with TenTen. His whole team was probably extremely tired. He frowned. "Sakura, we'll continue this tomorrow."

"What?" Her face, turned to him, was aghast and disbelieving. "Tomorrow's our last day!"

"I know," he said, his voice pained, "but we're all tired. We can't work well if we're slumping."

She groaned. "Tonight," she pleaded. "You and I, we can meet here tonight and work on it, and we can rest till then."

He frowned once more and sighed. "I suppose."

Sakura smiled slightly at him and turned to leave. "See you then."

"Right. Sakura?"

She turned, expectantly, and he could think of nothing to say. How pathetic was he?

But he didn't let her realize this, and made up something on the spot. "No secrets anymore. Everyone on the squadron deserves to know about this."

She nodded, looking-- was it his imagination?-- slightly disappointed. "I'll send out a note to every group before I rest."

Neji thanked her, and she turned to leave, shutting the door behind her. But then she turned. "You don't want something you can't hold onto, Neji," she said quietly, though he could hear every word. "You don't want to get hurt like you were before." She smiled slightly. "Neither do I." She walked away.

She had gone, and Neji felt an uprising of panic that was accompanied by a wash of realization.

_You don't want something you can't hold onto. You don't want to get hurt like you were before._

He could not... simply _could not-_ afford to lose her.

Author's Note: I've gotta run, so I'm just going to say this-- thank you all so much for your support and great reviews. You guys are my heroes. I tried to reward you with a good chapter, and I hope I succeeded, even if it was a little hurried-- these next few will be hard to write, so don't expect one for a couple weeks. Maybe three at the latest?

Anyways, you guys are the greatest. Thanks again.


	10. Twined Round the Columns

**Nascence**

---

_X: Twined Round the Columns_

---

_Tired_.

That word had become TenTen's whole world.

The brunette opened the door to the room she shared with Sakura with the kind of relief only someone as exhausted as she could experience and sighed a sigh of pure bliss. The futon was right next to her, warm and comfortable and smelling of freshly-washed linen… Sakura probably wouldn't be back from her 'talk' with Neji for another couple hours… and she had with her the bottle of wine Lee had given her as a 'just because' gift only thirty minutes earlier, because she was, quote unquote, 'looking so down… my beauteous flower should never feel such despair!'

Well, all of Lee's romantic, poetic talk aside, the gift was superbly apropos.

TenTen quickly changed into a simple sleeping yukata, something she hadn't worn in over a week, and let loose her chestnut hair from its tight rolls, relishing in the feel of the soft hair curling at her back. She lit a candle with a quick and weak fire jutsu, grabbed her newest mystery novel from her pack, and poured herself a glass of red wine from the bottle.

The weapons mistress took a slow sip and relaxed against the soft, downy pillows, drinking in both wine and word as her eyes flickered over her reading. She was just in the thick of the climax, right when a knife was pointed at the hero's throat and a trickle of blood was running down his neck, Sakura stumbled through the door.

_She's back earlier than I expected. I hope nothing went wrong._ But, on the contrary, Sakura looked satisfied. Not really happy, and certainly not jumping for joy; but on the other hand, a great deal better than she'd looked that morning.

Sakura caught a glimpse of her friend and smiled ever-so-slightly. "Comfy, are we?"

TenTen raised her slim eyebrows and cocked her head towards the bottle on the counter. Sakura obviously didn't want to talk about Neji. What this girl needed was some serious unwinding. "Help yourself. You look like you could use a little relaxation. There are glasses in the cabinet."

Sakura nodded her thanks and shrugged off her vest, dress, and shorts, wrapping a robe similar to TenTen's over her body. "Where'd you get that? Isn't it against ANBU rules to drink on the job?"

TenTen scowled in response. "Are you kidding? If anybody in the world needs alcohol, it's ANBU. Three-quarters of every team are puke-drunk after a mission, guaranteed. Why not start it off early?"

"True," the pink-haired woman replied with a little chuckle, pouring herself a bit of the burgundy liquid. "And what's a better time to have it than at the end of your life? Cheers."

"Cheers." TenTen raised her glass. "Did you figure anything out?"

Sakura sipped. "This is good. On the killer? No, not really-- I got a lock on his chakra signature, but that doesn't do us much good. It's too much… well, raw energy, really-- to recognize fully. It's just irritatingly familiar, that's all. I'm going back later tonight to work on it some more."

"Well, it's a start. You can find out tons of things from a chakra signature, can't you?" For the first time, TenTen felt a knot of real worry at the pit of her stomach. She was hardly paying attention to he words as the cold fear of death pressed upon her, making the insides warm from the wine chill immediately. "Do you think this guy's serious? I mean… about the whole 'kill your team' thing?"

Sakura moved her glass in circles, making the wine skim the edges. "I don't want to believe him," she answered after a moment, and her voice was quiet, "but I do. There's too much at stake for me not to believe him."

"And tomorrow's our last day."

Sakura nodded mutely.

TenTen looked at her novel for a moment before throwing it contemptuously to the floor. Damn it, why was she reading that trash, anyway? When she herself was about to taste the sharp end of a blade at sunset tomorrow?

"I'm sorry you're involved in this, Ten," her friend said softly, her voice heavily laced with something suspiciously akin to regret. "I didn't think… I don't know. I didn't think it would be this serious."

"Things are always serious when you're a shinobi, Sakura" TenTen snapped, but there was no real sting in it; there was more fear to it than anything. She drained her glass, reached for the bottle to refill it, and thought better, setting the empty thing on the side table instead. "If it makes you feel any better, Sakura," she added after a few seconds, "and I know it probably won't… but I want you to know I would be handling this a lot worse if I were in your place. It… I just… I don't know. The concept of dying hasn't ever hit me as hard as it has these past two weeks. You know?"

Sakura nodded, taking another slow sip. "I know." The possibility that she _wouldn't_ know was slim to absolutely none. The woman she looked to as a mother had just been murdered, and _that's something that shakes you and doesn't stop shaking till the hurting stops._

"But you can't just run away from it. It's inevitable-- especially as, well… one of us."

_One of us_.

Kunoichi.

Shinobi.

Sakura paused for a moment, and then smiled a real smile and finished off her share of wine, putting her glass next to TenTen's. "But you can't forget, TenTen: most of the time, we have the power to postpone it." She savored the rush of pride that coursed through her veins for a moment before turning her face to her teammate. "I'll try not to wake you when I leave. 'Night." And she leaned over to blow out the candle.

The last thing she saw before the candle's single lick of flame disappeared was her brown-haired friend's face: incredulous, worried, and bizarrely proud.

_We have the power to postpone death._

That was her job, her mission… her current Way of the Ninja, if you will. Her ninpou.

To postpone, if possible, the death of the people she loved.

And as she fell back on the pillows and heard the strangled little noise sob/laugh that TenTen let out before falling back on her own, Sakura smiled.

Because she knew she could do just that.

---

Sakura woke up at three-thirty A.M. on the dot and rose from the futon silently, slipping quickly back into her day clothing. She wasn't tired at all; on the contrary, even though she'd slept deeply, she was now completely awake.

The Haruno kunoichi pulled on her gloves and shot a glance at the bed opposite her own; TenTen was still asleep, snoring lightly with her head making a cavern in the pillows. Smiling slightly, Sakura exited the room, closing the door shut without a sound.

The journey from her bedroom to the conference room Neji and Sakura had met before was a rather unexciting one; just hallways and windowless doors and a few staircases. But Sakura's imagination provided her with gruesome and frightening possibilities: the killer was lurking behind that door; the Sasuke bunshin was going to spring from behind her at any moment; she would open the briefing room's door only to see Neji dead at her feet; she was in a genjutsu, wandering unknowingly towards the edge of a very steep and very fatal cliff.

She had actually gone so far as to consider using the Release technique when she arrived at the doors of the conference room. Steadying herself, Sakura firmly pushed all thoughts of gory deaths and raging murderers aside and let herself in.

Neji was not dead, and the room was not spattered with his blood. He was working diligently, scribbling something on a piece of paper and checking it with a scroll. There were piles and piles of the things on the table, some half-unrolled, some tightly sealed, others cast away onto the floor in a way that the Konoha archive's official librarian would have keeled over if she'd seen it. There were sheaves of paper littering the ground, some crumpled up into tiny balls and one seriously dented, with holes in it-- Sakura reasoned that Neji had lost his temper and closed some imaginary tenketsu points on the poor material. The photographs they'd gotten were spread right in front of him, in clear view, and every other piece of evidence surrounded him as he wrote. He had obviously not gone back to his room as he'd advised Sakura to; he had been working all night long, by his lonesome.

"Why didn't you take a rest?" Sakura demanded once she realized this, shutting the door and stalking over to him.

Neji glanced up. "I wasn't tired."

"Bullshit." The pink-haired woman sat down next to him, clearing a space for herself with a simple and powerful shove. "What have you been working on?"

"A psychoanalysis of the killer's personality."

Sakura frowned. "How? We've never even met him. Only the bunshin." 

Neji waved the forged letter from Gaara in her face. "This reveals some of his personality, and so does" -here he held up the letter the killer had written to Sakura- "this. They're completely different in context and tone. It's like this person has two personalities."

"What d'you mean?" 

"In the letter faked from Gaara, he's cold, almost impersonal; probably good to impersonate the Kazekage, but not good enough on a second glance. It's almost threatening. 'I don't want any more fatalities'… the way he wrote it sounds like he's almost warning the Hokage not to let anything else happen. This is most obviously someone who's been in control… or, worse, someone who believes he is _always_ in control."

Sakura nodded. "I get it. In the letter addressed to me, he's almost friendly. Scary, but not directly threatening. He sounds almost amused."

"Exactly." Neji shuffled his papers and held up a new one. "Everything else I did was organization. What we know, what we don't know, what we need to learn."

"A KWL chart."

"Sort of, yes."

Sakura took the paper from him and examined the 'don't know' section. _The red photograph, the chakra signature, the killer's identity, how to stop the reality manipulation_. Those were only the beginning. A bit frustrated already, Sakura chose one at random. "I'm going to work on how to stop the reality manipulation. There should be something in one of these scrolls about it _somewhere_. Or maybe I can pick up something from the hints in the letter."

Neji nodded his approval. "I'll work on the chakra signature. Byakugan might reveal something about its workings, something I might remember from the past."

After that, there was no real conversation; each person was thoroughly working. The only sound was the flickering of paper, the dry unrolling of scrolls, and the scraping of a pencil or pen as the two shinobi made notes. _We could be studying for an exam_, Sakura thought absently as she browsed an old scroll, and smiled slightly at the thought. _Only the difference here is greater than pass or fail._

Sighing, she rolled the dusty scroll back up and put it in a pile along with the others that hadn't revealed anything, choosing another at random from the pile in front of her. But for some reason, she couldn't focus. _I remember studying before the first Chuunin Exam_, she thought rather ruefully. _I was such an idiot. All those books I read have hardly helped me at all._ She knew she was only beating herself down; the byproduct of being a bookworm at the Academy was having a great knowledge of jutsu and counter-jutsu and technique in general that several ANBU she knew had no idea of.

Fiercely, Sakura fixed her eyes on the scroll, reading carefully so she wouldn't go off track again. '_These kind of genjutsu stop the flow of chakra so that the opponent cannot move; can only cry out in pain until the attacker decides to finish them off or an ally stands to protect them…'_ Sakura blinked. _Like what Orochimaru did to Sasuke with the curse seal. That was creepy… Sasuke unlocked his Sharingan for the first time and did battle with Orochimaru… and I just stood there, worried, until Orochimaru bit him._

She mentally shook herself again. _'…this attack may, however, cause permanent brain damage… may, in fact make your opponent go mad. It is not recommended for…'_

_Sasuke went mad when he woke up._ She remembered it well. That fearsome ring of purple fire traveling from the ground up; a spiraling, deadly thing that moved with him, coaxing him on. The body, so bruised and broken, was covered in inky black signs like the strangest of tattoos, and he had turned his head towards her and whispered her name roughly: 'Sakura… who did this to you?' She remembered it like it was yesterday. Those red, glimmering eyes, like shining rubies, or… or shimmering pools of blood…

There was a sharp bang, and Sakura jerked her head from where it had been resting on the table. Neji had closed a book hard and was now searching for another one. "Must've fallen asleep," she mumbled to herself. She stretched a bit and eased her sore neck muscles with her hands as she leaned over, preparing to commence reading once more.

But something stopped her.

Her blood chilled; her extremities seemed to go numb. Sakura gaped at her hands, the palms pink and fleshy, the backs scarred, a gaping cut by her left thumb from holding the bunshin's sword, a wound she hadn't had the time or energy to heal.

_Shimmering pools of blood._

_Shimmering pools of red blood._

_Red._

_Shimmering red._

Her head turned, almost against her will, to the row of pictures in front of Neji.

_Shimmering, bloody, Sharingan red._

The mysterious photo.

She immediately grabbed it, holding it up to the bright fluorescent lights of the room. It was the same color she'd seen every day at age twelve, the same color she saw about every week nowadays, whenever Kakashi came in for a check-up or a treatment.

Sharingan red.

The color of blood.

_You have been in close contact with this kind of reality manipulation before…_

The Mangekyou Sharingan.

Sakura clenched her fists to keep them from shaking, but her voice trembled without restraint as she spoke up. "Neji."

Her companion glanced up at her, took a look at her contorted face, and immediately slammed his book shut. "Sakura? What's wrong with you?"

"It's…" Her mouth was dry; she was finding it extremely difficult to talk. She licked her lips, coughed, and tried again. "It's the Sharingan." She was quiet, too quiet to be heard.

"The…" Neji frowned at her, leaning a bit closer. "The what?"

"The Sharingan."

Neji's pearl-hued eyes opened wide in shock and realization and his mouth hung open in an uncharacteristically emotional manner. "The Sharingan?"

"The Mangekyou Sharingan," she repeated, staring at her hands. "It's so damned obvious. The glimmering red picture is simply an enlarged part of the Sharingan eye-- you can see a little black shade in the corner that might be one of those comma-shaped things." She shook her head, as if trying to convince herself that she was lying, that it wasn't real, wasn't true. "The Sasuke bunshin, the intensity of the chakra… that hint he gave me. 'You've been in close contact with this reality manipulation'."

Neji seemed at a loss for words as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place neatly in his brain. But there was one missing. He glared in her general direction, though not at her… something was off. "So who is it?"

Sakura looked up, confused, and then realization dawned on her… there were only three people on the Earth she knew of that had the Sharingan.

Kakashi, Itachi, and Sasuke.

"It's not Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said hoarsely, "and Uchiha Itachi is dead. So that leaves…"

Neji looked at her. "But that's impossible. No one's heard about him in a long time, but the Uchiha…"

He didn't finish. He knew very well that Sasuke just might have.

All of a sudden, Sakura felt sick to her stomach. She looked at Neji wildly, green eyes aflame in shock. "If it's Sasuke, that means he's dead! He has to be dead to cast this kind of thing over so many people, for so long. The scroll told us that."

The Hyuuga branch family member across from her ran a hand through his dark mahogany sweep of hair. "There's no way," he murmured. "He's too strong to die in any kind of battle."

Sakura shook her head. "But he must be…" She put her fingers to her eyes in case tears pricked, but none did. Instead, she felt oddly lightweight, as a feather, as if she just wanted the ability to float above all this and let the wind take her somewhere else.

"The scroll might be wrong," Neji soothed, "but either way, we have to find a way to get out of this."

The two looked at each other over the table, and Sakura took her hands from her face and stood up. "We need to tell everyone."

"We don't have time," Neji argued. "We have approximately nineteen hours until midnight. We need all that time to figure this out."

"Neji, they have to know. They're part of the team."

Her glare was steely, and the way her chin was set showed Neji that the woman he'd come to love was not going to give up on this one.

He nodded his consent. "Fine."

Sakura nodded as he had done, in appreciation, and tied her mask round her head with a sense of absolute purpose. "I'll go wake up the team."

"And I'll get the Kazekage. We'll meet in his office and work on getting this straight." Neji also tied his mask on, tightening it at the back a little harder than was necessary. He watched her go to the door and wrench it open, watched her run a hand through her hair as he had done before. "Sakura."

She glanced back at him, and he felt a sudden, foolish urge to unmask her, to see what she really felt when he said her name-- whether it was nothing or everything, he just felt a need to _know_. And to be found so utterly wanting cut him to the core.

But she was saying nothing and revealing nothing, and he had to content himself with the way her hand had jerked towards the lip of her mask, as if to pull it up and look at him.

He cleared his throat and walked towards her, taking her hand in his in a gesture of uncharacteristic gentleness. "Good work."

Sakura was a bit taken aback, but recovered quickly and nodded. "Arigatou."

The two parted, running separate ways, and Sakura longed for the day when they could speak openly to each other.

All the obscurity of the past two weeks was driving her insane.

---

She knocked her black-gloved knuckles on the doors her teammates were behind, kicking Sai's just because it was his. "Wake up," she called into the thick wood. "We have a breakthrough."

Shikamaru, surprisingly, was the first one out, yawning widely and rubbing the side of his head. "Yare, yare, Sakura… what's the big deal?"

"The 'big deal', Mr. Troublesome, is that we know who's doing this to us," Sakura retorted, poking him hard in the chest.

Shikamaru's deer-brown eyes widened, and he suddenly seemed all the more awake. "You're not joking?"

"Not joking," Sakura answered as the rest of the team spilled from their rooms fully-clothed, tying their masks round their heads. "You'll get a briefing in the Kazekage's office, so I suggest we hurry. Neji's probably already explaining to him."

With hope mounted on pedestals in their hearts, the team ran through the hallways, wrenching open the door to the Kazekage's office and falling through with solemn, masked faces.

The Kazekage's hair was ruffled, and it was plain that he thought little of being woken before dawn. But his face was serious, and he was sitting at his desk with a mixture of rage, relief, and exhaustion radiating from his person.

Neji stood at the front of the room with Gaara as their Captain, waiting till they were all inside the room before starting to speak. "After research, Sakura found that what is being used on us is not a genjutsu, so to speak, but something called 'reality manipulation'. This is used in the Mangekyou Sharingan… a smaller version, anyway. The enormity of this jutsu has one tax on the caster: it kills them." He paused. "Uchiha Itachi is, as you all know, dead. Killed by his brother, Uchiha Sasuke, who is the last remaining shinobi in possession of the Sharingan besides Hatake Kakashi-sensei. All evidence points to the Uchiha as our man."

"But that would mean that Sasuke-san is dead," Lee remarked, his voice strangely serious. "His flame of youth doused… I can't imagine."

"How he died is not the issue," Neji said quickly. "Finding out how to stop _us_ from all doing the same is."

Sai frowned beneath his mask and spoke up quietly. "But why would the traitor target us? We haven't heard anything about him in months. What's this for? What are his motives?"

There was an uneasy silence, broken only by Sakura shifting uncomfortably by the doorway. Unfortunately, this did not go unnoticed by Neji. "Sakura?"

She looked up, then away, almost instantly. "The bunshin said he was testing me." She paused and sighed. "If he was close to death, maybe he wanted the reality manipulation to be his last act. Acknowledging me."

She remembered that once upon a time, that had been her greatest wish: for Sasuke to notice her, to look upon her as someone worth challenging.

Shikamaru turned slowly in his seat to face her. "Why would he do that? Wouldn't he have more important things to focus on before he died?"

Sakura shook her head. "To Sasuke, family was almost the most important thing, even if he didn't have one. I always thought that towards the end, whenever it would come, he would want to gather what he had left to make one."

"And killing you is a good way to do that?" TenTen remarked skeptically.

Shikamaru frowned at her. "The Uchiha's mind worked in strange ways, TenTen, don't forget. He went through incredible trauma, and his idea of a family is probably very distorted compared to ours. I was always surprised he didn't just go mad."

Gaara interrupted the soon-to-be debate with a cough. "Whatever the case," he said in his deep, rumbling voice, "you have about eighteen point five hours until the reality manipulation halts with you in it and you're all killed. I'd suggest getting a move on."

Neji nodded. "Hai. Sai, patrol the city for the bunshin in case he comes to create any more trouble. Shikamaru, I want you with Sakura, figuring out whatever you can about the weaknesses of this kind of reality manipulation. Lee and TenTen, you'll work with the Kazekage's genjutsu users to find out anything you can… anything the books didn't elaborate on."

He was silent for a very long time, as if trying to think of words that would encourage them. And "hurry up or you'll die" didn't seem quite right.

"We all want to get home," he said instead, and cast a long, almost tangible look towards Sakura. "We all want the chance to toughen up, to see our friends, face old hurts." He spoke deliberately.

_You don't want to get hurt like you were before._

"So let's work on getting our lives back, eh? I'm tired of being in somebody else's mind."

The team nodded and stood, almost as one, and vanished, leaving Sakura, Neji, and Gaara in the same room. Sakura's masked face didn't move away from Neji's for a very long time, but then she turned her head and vanished, too, a puff of opaque smoke replacing her body.

Was it Neji's imagination, or had there been a curve of a smile from behind that mask?

---

"How the hell does someone have that much power?"

Shikamaru glanced up from his text at Sakura's face, which was currently conveying mild shock. Their masks were thrown carelessly to the side, and they were both poring over their respective tomes, things on the Sharingan and the Uchiha clan and dispelling techniques. "What?"

"I was just thinking, Shikamaru, I'm sorry," she said hastily, reaching for her book again. She hesitated, then dropped her hand. "These things are about as useful as gasoline for dousing a fire."

"True." Shikamaru slammed his book shut. "I work better by thinking without the aid of words."

Sakura closed her own and stared at him as he leaned back in his chair, tugging at the end of his spiky ponytail. "Penny for your thoughts."

"This reality manipulation is basically the Mangekyou Sharingan times a thousand."

Sakura nodded. "If you want to put it like that, yes. It's the same basic principle."

"And how does one stop the Mangekyou Sharingan?"

Sakura felt like a child in the Academy, and she resented it. "Well, it's a regular genjutsu, isn't it? So you'd either stop the chakra flow to your brain or have someone else force their chakra into you." Shikamaru nodded sagely, and Sakura sighed in irritation. "But Shikamaru, this isn't a normal genjutsu. It creates a different reality… not just something inside the group's respective brains, but a completely different world. And you can't just walk up to it and force chakra into it to break it."

"So outside chakra won't work. What about inside chakra?"

"What about it? I've canceled the chakra flow to my brain thousands of times since I found that scroll, and I'm still here, aren't I?"

"You are, indeed." Shikamaru was silent for a long time, as if waiting for her to continue, and Sakura's annoyance grew.

"Shikamaru, where exactly are you going with this?" she snapped. "Not all of us have IQs of 3000."

"Apparently."

"Shika-"

He cut off the threat he knew was coming with a loud sigh. "Listen. I have a theory. And it's just a theory, but there just might be something to it." He paused, and Sakura waved at him to continue. Shikamaru rubbed his temples. "This kind of jutsu would take up a huge amount of chakra."

"Duh."

Shikamaru gave her a withering glare and continued loudly. "Technically, for the jutsu to work fully, the person would have to concentrate all the chakra in their body-- and I mean _all of it_-- to pull it off perfectly."

Sakura was clearly ready to say 'duh' again, and so he rushed on.

"That means that it wouldn't work if they were doing it while having a heart attack, because they'd be asleep and unable to do anything; it wouldn't work during a battle, either, because they would have used up some chakra, even a minimum, to fight at all. So the only way it would work perfectly is if they were planning it and planning to commit suicide."

Sakura frowned slightly, but then nodded. "So Sasuke… killed himself?" She nearly choked, and she felt her throat ache. Not Sasuke. He couldn't have.

"No, I don't believe he did," said Shikamaru, leaning forward and lacing his fingers together in his usual thinking position. "Uchiha is-- was… too proud to kill himself. Too full of himself, too egotistical in every sense of the word."

Sakura felt a little pang. "So…?"

Shikamaru turned his head a bit to the side, glancing at her through the corners of his eyes. "I think that the real world and his fake one merge a couple times."

Sakura's level of understanding, on a scale from one to ten, went from eight to about negative thirty in half a second. "What?" 

Shikamaru sighed once more, grabbing a piece of paper. He drew two circles, their perimeters dashed instead of solid, and labeled them 'real world' and 'manipulated reality'. "He didn't have all his chakra when he made this one for us to live in," Shikamaru explained, pointing to the 'manipulated reality' bubble. "And so it's unstable. It melts into the real world at times, and then comes back out. I think it has to do with when we're all together, or whether we're separate."

"Explain."

"Alright." He set his pencil down. "When we went to Konoha for the Godaime's funeral, how did everyone else see us and recognize us?"

Sakura frowned. "Maybe they were a part of the reality manipulation."

"Can't be. Sasuke is targeting our group only. And what about Gaara? Is he targeted, too?"

"No…"

"But he's every bit as involved as we are," Shikamaru insisted. "He's right in the thick of it because he's close to us. It's only when our squadron is together that the manipulated reality is perfect. Think about it. When you're on your own, or with someone that isn't a victim of this jutsu, has anything happened to you?"

_No._

No!

He was right, she realized, completely right. She had been tricked by the genjutsu with TenTen; had been with the injured chuunin with Neji; had been with the whole team for the rogues and the studying and finding the note and such… and whenever she walked alone in the streets, Gaara never took notice of her; when she had been talking with Shizune, the woman had acted slightly confused about the Hokage's death, even though she was one of the Godaime's closest confidantes; when she was at home when Naruto was brooding, she'd noticed her house looked exactly the same, even though she'd slept in it the night before. Why hadn't these things occurred to her earlier? Why hadn't she seen?

"But Tsunade-shishou's funeral was real," Sakura whispered. "She was dead."

"That's what I mean, Sakura, that the two worlds merge," Shikamaru murmured, his voice quieter at her sorrow. "They merged just then, and the whole of Konoha was affected."

"What about Naruto? Is he still in it?"

Shikamaru shrugged a shoulder. "It's impossible to tell because the two worlds are so close. It's like a quilt halfway sewed: the two ends are touching, but they're not completely connected."

"And if the two halves aren't sewn together, there's still a chance the second half pulls away."

"Metaphorically speaking."

Sakura grinned slightly at him. "So… in other words, if we find a way to break the weak connection between the real world and the manipulated reality, we can win. We can get out."

"Exactly."

Sakura's smile brightened, then dimmed again. "But that leaves us right back where we started. How are supposed to break that connection?"

Shikamaru steepled his fingers, and his dark eyes flashed a bit. "I think," he said slowly, "the bunshin is the key."

"The bunshin?" she repeated. "How?"

"It traveled back and forth between worlds even when they weren't really merging," Shikamaru said, weighing each word for substance. "The _bunshin_ killed Tsunade. The _bunshin_ fought you. And the _bunshin_ wrote those letters. It is, literally, a clone of Sasuke-- a representation of the Uchiha in both worlds… one he created, and one he's lost to."

Sakura shook her head. "How the hell do you think of this stuff, Shikamaru?" she asked hoarsely.

"Practice," he answered simply, toying with a kunai. "And the IQ of 3000 doesn't hurt, either."

Sakura chuckled. "So how do we go about defeating this bunshin? I threw all of my best attacks at him the other night."

"Did you, really? Everything you had?" 

She hesitated. "Well… no, not really. It just looked so much like Sasuke."

Shikamaru gave her a small glare. "Sakura, emotional attachments wil not help you here at all."

She sighed, frustrated, and blew a strand of rosy hair from her eyes. "I know, Shikamaru, I know. But when you see a teammate you considered lost to you for three years all of a sudden standing right in front of you, your brain doesn't really function like that. In that kind of situation, it's 'logic be damned'."

He rolled his eyes. "There was a difference then," he said.

"What?"

He smirked at her, a typically lazy smirk that made her want to both punch him and ruffle his pineapple-head at the same time.

"You were fighting alone."

---

Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait, guys, but this took an extraordinarily long time to write. We're coming oh-so-near to a conclusion here, so hold onto your hats… this is going to be a big battle.

And props to cowtippr, who correctly identified what seems to be the killer. But I've got some more stuff up my sleeve, so don't you guys worry.

See you next time, and I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter!


	11. Chance to Hope

**Nascence**

---

_XI: Chance to Hope_

---

Neji sat with his back against the window, his lavender eyes closed, his breathing heavy and even. He seemed totally asleep, but Sakura knew better. There was a stiffness in his posture, a rigidity. His shoulders lifted with his breaths instead of his stomach, which meant he wasn't working his diaphragm for a truly deep breath. And one fist kept clenching and unclenching as he searched for a thought, an idea, that was beyond his reach.

_Two hours left, and we still haven't found the bunshin._

"How long were you planning on staring at me, Sakura?"

She jolted but smiled slightly, going to sit next to him on the window seat. "Until you got suitably annoyed by it. What are you doing?"

"Thinking about how we're going to defeat this bunshin."

Sakura frowned. "It's only one clone."

"But it's _Uchiha Sasuke's_ clone. It's strong, and it doesn't disappear like regular bunshin when you hit it. We've seen that."

Sakura was silent for a long time, smoothing her ANBU-regulation silver vest only to be doing something with her hands. "Neji, what if we don't get home?"

His eyes opened for the first time since their conversation started, and he turned to her with a small frown. "I thought you were confident we would. What happened to the Haruno optimist?"

"There's still a 'what if' in there somewhere, Neji, I know everyone's thinking it." She pushed her hair from her face, and he found himself searching the line of her jaw with his eyes, yearning to touch it, to pretend that everything was normal. "I don't want to die."

Neji sat up fully, not knowing exactly what to say. "I don't think many people look forward to it, exactly," he managed lamely. "But we're not going to die."

"Neji, how can you be so confident? What if Sasuke's stored chakra runs out in five minutes? What if the bunshin kills us? What if the battle is still going on when the reality manipulation dissipates? In any of those cases, all of which are perfectly logical, we die. We disappear. Forever."

Neji could think of nothing to say to this.

"I mean…" Her voice cracked slightly, and he could tell she wanted so badly to cry-- "I mean, can you imagine never seeing Hinata again, Neji? And even Gai-sensei? And… Ino, TenTen, Lee, Shikamaru and Sai, and Naruto…" Sakura's voice wavered uncontrollably. "I can't imagine a world without Naruto… and now he's Hokage…"

He didn't look at her-- he didn't think he could stand to see the pain in her face. It was enough to hear it in her voice.

"That's… I mean… who would punch him and Sai when they're being stupid?" She gave a weak warble of a laugh. "And… buy Naruto ramen, and go to Ino for beauty tips, and beat up Kankurou with Temari, and… you, Neji, who'd I love if not you? There'd be no love _in_ me to love..."

To his extreme anger, he felt his throat start to burn, as well.

"And punch them for being stupid… especially that…" She shook her head. "Being stupid… I'm being stupid."

She turned to leave, took a step, actually was towards the door when Neji caught her by the wrist, spun her around, and pulled her roughly to his chest.

Sakura wasn't crying now, but Neji was; her hands twined shakily around his neck and he put his chin on her shoulder, a single tear streaking down his face. All the feelings filling him up were so incredibly alien-- there was the feel of Sakura's body meshed with his, and then there was the aching rise of grief, and there was the overwhelming feeling of crying-- actually _crying_, which was something he hadn't done in years.

"We're not going to die," he whispered to her.

She lifted her face from his chest and stared at him in disbelief. "Neji, you're crying," she murmured, and took a trembling hand from his neck and brushed her thumb against the curve of his cheekbone, taking the tear away as surely as if it had never been there.

Neji was reminded forcibly that he loved this woman more than words could possibly express.

Sai burst through the door in an uncharacteristic display of panic, TenTen and Shikamaru following him, and the two looked at him with rising feelings of both dread and determination. They knew what he was going to say. And, maybe for the first time since the whole mission started, they were ready for it.

"We found the bunshin."

---

Lee had barely broken a sweat by the time Neji and Sakura arrived with the others, but he certainly had his hands full.

He was engaged in a one-on-one taijutsu match with the bunshin, and he couldn't for the life of him land a single hit. The Sasuke clone wove in between his punches and kicks like he was made of water, melting into nothingness and then reappearing behind him so fast Lee had to fairly collapse to the ground in order to escape a back-breaking punch.

Sai quickly drew in his sketchbook, and a bird made completely of ink unfolded spectacularly from the page, spreading its wings with a flourish. "TenTen, Sai, get on the bird," Neji shouted. "Shikamaru, Sakura, try to distract the clone… TenTen, launch your scroll at Uchiha when Lee is out of the way."

The bird swept to the side, doing a circle around the bunshin as Lee ran to it for another barrage of punches and kicks. "Konoha Senpu!" the taijutsu user called out, and ducked quickly as the bunshin's fist lashed out at him. Lee gathered his energy and slammed his foot into Sasuke's chest, causing the black-haired bunshin stumbled back, anger sparking in his eyes.

Lee's next series of attacks, however, spawned no results; the bunshin merely dodged them all and sent a bruising kick to Lee's chest, followed by a barrage of punches that were too fast and too hard even to be seen-- only Lee's bruised body on the ground five seconds later showed the running Neji, Shikamaru, and Sakura the damage that had been caused.

Sakura gasped as she ran towards the fighting duo, tightening her gloves. "Why hasn't Lee taken off his leg weights yet?"

Neji's voice was quiet as he pointed to two pairs of strips of heavy bars on the ground. "He has."

Sakura's green eyes widened as she realized the implications of this-- Lee was, right now, at his fastest, and the bunshin could still keep up with him. The bunshin could dodge every attack. "It's fast!"

"Too fast," Shikamaru grunted with a frown as they sprinted. Neji had his Byakugan activated and Sakura was furiously summoning her chakra into her fists, ready to beat the Sasuke look-a-like into a bloody pulp. "He can dodge anything. We need to find a way to slow him down, or stop him."

"But if he can escape your Kagemane no jutsu, there's nothing we can do…" Sakura muttered with a furious scowl as they got closer.

Neji felt his fists clench. "We need a strategy." He did one last push with his legs and landed in front of the clone, closing a tenketsu point in the arm of the bunshin whose fist was heading straight for Lee's head. Sakura followed, quickly delivering a bone-crunching side kick to the enemy's stomach while the Sasuke clone was caught off guard.

Shikamaru nodded and slowed his pace, seemingly unaware of the battle before him as he thought. "We need a strategy."

Neji continued his tenketsu-closing onslaught, and Sakura dragged Lee away, pressing a green-glowing hand to his bruises and cuts. "Be careful," she whispered to him in a warning. "I only healed your major wounds, and those could be only the beginning. Don't you dare do anything drastic."

Rock Lee's eyes glimmered, and he used her hand to stand himself up. "Sakura-san, I promised I would never give up, did I not?"

Sakura watched with concern as he stood up straight, putting his hands together.

"HACHIMON!"

The Inner Eight Gates.

"Lee, please!" Sakura begged, worry flooding throughout her brain, but he paid her no heed-- blue chakra burst around him, circling him as his first three Gates opened.

---

From above, an army of black and white tigers leapt into the fray, clawing and biting at Sasuke. But the bunshin merely withdrew his katana and ran straight through Sai's ink cats, leaping off of one and slicing at Neji with the ink-soaked sword. The Hyuuga prodigy quickly slid his feet sideways to get into a defensive position and put his hands in front of his face.

"Hakke Kusho!"

A stream of air shot from Neji's hands, forcing the bunshin backwards and into the point of Shikamaru's own outstretched katana. Sasuke reached up and around, grabbing the handle of the sword and flipping it and its handler back with incredible power, sending Neji and Shikamaru scattering into the dust.

There was a flash of pink that leapt over the bodies, and Sakura was rushing at him, a blur of fists and feet and chakra. The bunshin dove under her high kick and slammed an elbow into her spine, cracking a vertebrae. Sakura cringed in pain but turned immediately, sending a punch of pure anger towards the bunshin's face. Sasuke flew back, over Neji and Shikamaru, who were rising quickly, and straight into Lee's super-powered kick.

The bunshin roared in fury and turned in midair, attacking Lee with what Sakura recognized as Sasuke's Lion Combo. Lee hit the ground hard, and she made to run after him, but Neji grabbed her arm. She turned to face him, but he was smirking slightly. "TenTen."

Sakura looked up, and a similar smile graced her features. The bunshin was dead meat.

The sky was raining metal.

The bunshin was already up and racing towards Lee when he looked up to the sky in what seemed to be irritation and alarm; the heady scent of metallic death was only yards away when he stopped running, a curious smirk on his face.

"What's he doing?" Sai muttered to TenTen from atop the ink bird. "He's not even trying to dodge them… he's just standing there." The bunshin pulled something from his teeth and flicked his wrists several times, but nothing happened. Sai frowned in confusion.

And then the weapons suddenly changed course.

TenTen gasped in pain and surprise as the wires wrapped around her fingers tightened, immediately cutting off her circulation. "He's using wires!" she shrieked, trying desperately not to topple off the bird. "He's controlling the weapons! I'm-- I'm not strong enough to put them where I want them, he's taking control!"

Sai cursed loudly as the onslaught of weapons suddenly turned from their path straight down and headed instead towards the group on land.

"Shit!" Neji shouted, forcing Shikamaru and Sakura back. "He's controlling TenTen's wires with his own!"

There was a flurry of hand signals, and the three shinobi quickly vanished in replacement jutsu. The weapons clattered to the ground or stuck in trees, forgotten as Lee ran towards the bunshin from behind, his fourth and fifth Gates opened. His skin glowed maroon red as he fought with the bunshin-- and this time, the majority of his attacks hit Sasuke.

The bunshin coughed up blood and wiped his mouth, something akin to evil lighting up his eyes as he drew his katana again. Lee drew his own, and the two engaged in a sort of swordfight, Lee incorporating a couple kicks and punches into the battle that were swiftly deflected.

TenTen and Sai leapt from the ink bird, and TenTen quickly drew out another scroll, biting her thumb and crisscrossing it over the paper, leaving swirling bloodstains that morphed into a sharp, horrifying array of weaponry. Twirling in midair, she threw the weapons with deadly accuracy towards the killer, landing heavily on the ground with the scroll draping over her shoulders.

It seemed to happen in slow motion from Shikamaru's point of view… Neji and Sakura were running towards the bunshin, fists clenched or fingers pointed, respectively, when they stopped short, eyes widened; TenTen's face changed from an expression of triumph to one of horror as her projectiles soared towards Lee and the Sasuke clone; Sai's mad scribbling stopped in mid-stroke, and his usually expressionless face morphed as he dropped his brush…

The bunshin had, in a moment of spectacular speed, grabbed Lee's arms, pinned them at his sides, and held the ANBU member directly in front of himself a split-second before the weapons hit.

Lee's body jerked as the weapons pounded into his form… his red skin dimmed to several shades paler than its normal color, and blood spurted from the many wounds. The bunshin laughed cruelly, without mercy, and Shikamaru felt a chill go down his spine and his face drain of all blood. "You thought you could save him? You killed him!"

"LEE!"

TenTen ran towards the bunshin, katana withdrawn, nothing short of murderous intent contorting her face. But the bunshin threw Lee aside, grabbing his own sword and Lee's, facing her with a sickening smile.

"TenTen, NO!" Sakura snapped out of her trancelike state and delivered a swift kick to the Uchiha clone's side, knocking it out of the way before the two swords it held impaled one of her best friends.

Neji seized TenTen by the arms and dragged her away from danger as Sakura went into a mad sort of spar against the bunshin, both kunai and katana drawn as the two shinobi fought with a mixture hand-to-hand and weapon combat.

TenTen could only glibber at Lee's pale face, the way his body twitched, the way _her_ scroll, _her_ weapons, _her_ attack, had maybe killed _her_ teammate, _her_ friend, _her_ lover. "Lee, no, please, no, Lee… I'm sorry, Lee…"

Sai picked up his brush and quickly drew another array of frightening creatures: bears, more tigers, giant snakes, scorpions-- that streamed towards the bunshin, keeping him busy while he and Sakura and Shikamaru joined Neji and TenTen.

Sai took TenTen's arm over his shoulder, helping her to rest against a tree and calm her down while Shikamaru consulted with Sakura and Neji. "I have… a plan, of sorts."

"Will it work?" Neji asked.

"I think so."

"Will it kill one of our team?"

Shikamaru opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. "Maybe."

Neji frowned, looked at Lee's unmoving body, looked at the bunshin mauling the ink animals as if they were pieces of paper. "Let's give it a try."

---

"Forty-five minutes!"

The Sasuke clone's call echoed throughout the empty clearing. "Forty-five minutes and I'm not dead yet. Have you given up, Sakura?"

He strolled around the perimeter of the clearing, polishing the bloodied katana along the ground. "You've picked up your poor dead friend and left," he called to the trees, pointing to the pool of blood where Lee had lain. "Surely not to heal him? You, of all people, a medic, should know he's beyond healing.

"A waste of chakra," he continued aimlessly, sheathing his sword. "That's what all of you are."

"Don't fucking bet on it."

Sakura dropped from a tree to the right of the bunshin and landed neatly in a crouch, one hand steadying herself on the ground.

"So you arrive? Alone? I don't sense your other teammates, Sakura-- have you been abandoned?"

She didn't answer, but there was a strange kind of light in her green eyes when she clenched her fists that told him she meant business. "I have forty-five minutes to beat you into a bloody stain on the ground," she hissed. "Let's get to it."

The Sasuke bunshin threw three shuriken at her with a flick of the wrist, and she ran at them, deflecting them all with a kunai. He saw Sakura allow herself a small smile as she molded chakra into her feet-- _she did the same thing at the first chuunin exam_-- and pound into the ground, leaving little dents in the rocky soil as she increased her speed. She launched herself at the bunshin, who quickly pulled out his own kunai and blocked her attack. Sakura turned three times with her leg outstretched, but the bunshin ducked under her kicks easily; she reversed her turns and kneed Sasuke in the face instead.

The clone flew back, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Bitch!"

Sakura's eyes turned more gray than green as she simply smiled... did her skin have a blackish tinge, or was that just his eyes? And then, as the bunshin rushed towards her in anger, she disappeared in front of his very eyes.

Sasuke wheeled around, looking for evidence of a replacement jutsu, but she was nowhere to be seen. There was only the stirring of the wind in the trees behind him. He felt a presence behind him and turned around quickly, but saw only a large cherry blossom tree… so what had he felt creeping around his ankle? 

He looked down--

the roots of the tree were twining around his legs!

The clone roared in fury and struggled against the tree as its branches wound its way around his torso and neck, a couple tendrils circling his head. Once fully entrapped, he saw Sakura come from the tree as if she herself were one of the branches, still holding a kunai.

Her eyes were steely as she plunged it downwards.

But those eyes widened in surprise as her dagger hit not flesh, but metal-- the clone had somehow broken free from the genjutsu's hold and was blocking her attack with his katana.

Sasuke laughed loudly and raucously and flicked his wrist, sending her kunai spinning into the dirt.

And then he lunged.

Caught off balance, Sakura tumbled backwards ungracefully, pulling out her katana as she went. She forced herself back on her feet and turned quickly, parrying his attack and putting one hand on the ground in the same crouch she'd landed in from leaping off the tree.

"Kagemane no jutsu!"

_What?_

The bunshin suddenly found he couldn't move… with effort, he cast his eyes downward, only to find that his shadow was joined with Sakura's. But only Nara clan members could do that jutsu…

And then another Sakura walked out from behind the trees, her fingers interlocked. "Kai."

The Sakura whose shadow was now joined with his immediately turned into Nara Shikamaru, who was surveying the bunshin with a small smile on his face.

Sakura had put a genjutsu over Shikamaru to make him look like her, and then even confused Sasuke further by casting another genjutsu to make it look like it really was Sakura. And now he was trapped. The bunshin gave a grimace of anger and started pulling at his shadows. With enough effort, he could break out of the jutsu.

"TenTen, Neji, now!" Shikamaru called, sweat breaking along his hairline. The clone's struggling tugged at the shadow. If he only held on for a couple more minutes…

The two others rushed out from trees and bushes while Sai appeared on the edge of the battlefield, carrying Lee's body. TenTen pulled out her weapons scroll again and prepared to fire, but the bunshin laughed. Even if he got punctured by all the weapons, so would the shadow-user. They would both die. Sakura stood behind him, stabbing his pant leg with her katana, into the ground.

Neji took his stance in front of Sakura, and then the bunshin understood.

"Soshoryu!"

TenTen's Twin Rising Dragons scrolls leapt into the air, her between them. She touched each seal, and soon a vast array of weapons, sharpened to a flesh-puncturing point, were hanging in midair. TenTen took aim, a gleam of revenge in her eye, and fired.

At the same time, Shikamaru let go of his jutsu, and Neji spun quickly around Sakura, blocking any of the weapons that might hit her as she held the bunshin down with her katana.

Metal death rained down upon the Sasuke clone.

He was hit about fifteen times before he managed to break away from Sakura's katana's hold. He leapt out of the way and ran towards Shikamaru, powerfully kicking the shadow-user into a tree and knocking him out cold before rounding on the others.

Sakura looked at the sun frantically-- ten minutes. He should have been dead by now, and now their strategist was unconscious… the bunshin was now rushing towards them, hands behind his back, a glint of madness in his eyes that seemed terribly familiar… what were they going to _do_?

TenTen's shriek broke through her reverie, and she heard Neji shout her name. "SAKURA!"

Sakura wheeled around, putting up her fists, ready to fight…

Her eyes widened dramatically, and she gasped.

The bunshin was rushing towards her, screaming, blue lightning enveloping the fist behind his back. It was Sasuke's signature technique, the one he'd almost used on Naruto, almost killed him with… and now he was trying to kill her…

_He's not Sasuke. He's not trying to kill me. This is all an illusion, all an illusion, all an illusion… it's not real, it's all an illusion…_

She felt herself start running away from the bunshin. _If it's all an illusion… not real… I'm not really here… reality… reality manipulation…_ Her thoughts tumbled over one another as she ran away from the clone, fists clenched. _He can only go in a straight line with this attack, but the Sharingan deduces where I'm going… the Sharingan…_

_THE SHARINGAN!_

Sakura stopped in mid-leap and grabbed two shuriken from her pack… her last shuriken, her last defense. She wasn't the shot TenTen was, but it was all she could do… she had to try to blind him.

She sent the projectiles spinning towards the clone's eyes.

They came so close, brushing the skin, curving at the last moment to slice two lines down his cheeks so like his brother Itachi's…

She had failed, and now she would die…

_You're a medic-nin, Sakura, and that means you can do things to other people no one else can do. You can use your body as a platform, you can use your fingers as knives…_

_Tsunade…_

Sakura reversed course and charged directly at the bunshin.

Vaguely, she heard TenTen's screaming and Neji's shouting and Sai's yelling obscenities… in the back reaches of her sanity and consciousness, she saw Shikamaru, out cold, and in her imagination she saw Lee, dying slowly even though she'd healed him as best she could. Was this for them, then? Was this for Tsunade? Neji? All of them?

She couldn't think. All she could do was fight.

Because she was a soldier.

A shinobi.

She and the bunshin were inches from each other-- both of them bloodied, bruised, tired… she lifted her hand, and he lifted his fist, and they both delivered their final blows.

Sakura managed to get him, first-- the sliver of chakra she'd forced into her fingertips cut through his chest, through his skin and muscle and bone, and found its way into his heart, his bunshin heart-- and it killed him just as his Chidori sped its way into Sakura's own.

To Neji, it was like watching the end of the world from the first row. The two shinobi clashed, and blood spurted from both wounds; the bunshin fell first, chakra still glowing around his wound, but Sakura stayed up, wobbling on unsteady feet as she looked down at the hole in her chest.

"SAKURA!" TenTen and Sai ran to her, calling her name, and Neji did, too, mostly because he felt obligated to. He had no desire to see her this way, no need to see her bloody and dying, in pain, wracking her body for one extra breath.

But he caught her as she fell, because he loved her and that was what he had to do, and he felt the alien feeling of tears again, welling up in his eyes and spilling over, gliding down his cheeks and dripping onto her shirt, onto her face and neck and hair. The face he loved to stare at and the neck he longed to kiss and the hair he'd always wanted to run his hands through.

He choked, and held her close to him. He stared at her face and he kissed her neck and he ran his hands through her silken rose hair because he might never get the chance to do it again. She turned her head towards him-- the face he loved was so contorted with pain-- and smiled slightly, reaching up to touch the curve of his jaw. Something glowed a bright red on her shoulder… was it blood? "We're not going to die," she whispered.

And the world turned upside-down.

Everything slid into each other... colors mixed like paint being stirred, and Neji felt the ground leave his feet. Sai fell to the ground, TenTen yelled, and Sakura laughed. The world turned around again, everything patching up like puzzle pieces, swirling up and down, turning backwards and front-side back and who-knows-which-way-is-up.

And they were back.

Right in front of the memorial stone, in the clearing that surrounded it. TenTen's weapons were gone, and so was the bunshin. It was only them, lying on the ground. Lee and Shikamaru were still unconscious, Sakura still bleeding, TenTen, Sai, and Neji all grouped around them.

TenTen blinked in amazement, looking around her. "Konoha," she murmured, as if in prayer. "I can't believe it."

Sai looked around, and then down, grabbing Sakura's hand. "Ugly!"

Neji looked around frantically and ran to Shikamaru and Lee's bodies. "TenTen, get the medics and Nar- the Hokage. Hurry!"

And though he was supposed to be watching over Lee and Shikamaru, Neji couldn't help but steal glances at where Sakura was lying, motionless, while Sai held her hand.

---

Naruto was frantic.

He was pacing about ten times a minute, going so fast one of the medics asked him to sit down before they had to treat _him_ as well as the others-- "Wait till _your_ friends are on the brink of death, and then we'll talk, girly"-- and quickly backed away.

Neji, Sai, and TenTen sat almost numbly in the chairs in the Emergency Room's waiting area while Naruto paced, clutching the ends of their chairs. A male medic had quickly patched up their injuries, and then had hurried off to see to the others.

After a while, the blond Rokudaime sat down. "Tell me what happened," he demanded hoarsely.

TenTen glanced at Neji and Sai, but they said nothing, merely stared at the ground, and so she told the story for them. "Sakura and Neji found out about the reality manipulation, and then she and Shikamaru figured out that defeating the bunshin was our gateway into the real world. So we kept a watch going for the clone for about two-thirds of the day until we found him with only two hours left. We started a direct approach, but that didn't work… he was fast, and he put Lee up in front of him as a shield from my weapons. We retreated after that to think of a plan.

"Sakura put a genjutsu over Shikamaru to make him look like her, and then cast another genjutsu to make it seem like it was really her fighting. Shikamaru held the bunshin's shadow still, and I readied another weapon attack. Sakura held the bunshin with a katana once Shikamaru let go of his shadow, and Neji deflected any of the stray weapons that could have hit her. The Uchiha clone was hit a lot, but still managed to tear away before it could get fatal. He knocked out Shikamaru and ran towards Sakura with a Chidori."

Naruto gave a weak sort of groan and buried his head in his hands. "How did you kill the bunshin?"

"We didn't," Neji interrupted, speaking for the first time. His voice was a monotone. "We weren't fast enough. Sakura put chakra into her fingers and used them as a blade to cut through the bunshin, right before he hit her with the Chidori. The reality manipulation ended, and we landed in the clearing around the memorial stone."

Naruto shook his head. "Sai, you were with her last before the medics came, right?"

Sai nodded.

"How did she look?"

The artist looked away, as if he couldn't look at Naruto's face directly for fear of breaking down. "Not as ugly as usual," he murmured.

Naruto's face crumpled almost visibly, like a paper bag falling in on itself. He gave a half-choke, half-sob and shook his head. "She can't leave me, I love her…"

Neji ran a hand through his hair in an uncharacteristically emotional manner. His fingers shook. "I know the feeling."

Everyone in the room looked at him, but he paid no attention, staring at his other hand. It, too, was trembling. How long ago was it that those hands had held Sakura?

"Hyuuga?"

He glanced up, trying to keep his voice level. Naruto's wasn't. "Hn?"

"If… if she doesn't…" The Rokudaime Hokage swallowed hard, choking down regret, sorrow, grief. "Never mind. I give you my blessing, for what it's worth."

"And mine," volunteered Sai, so quietly it was almost impossible to hear.

Was it prudent-- even possible-- to feel the same insane mixture of happiness and deep grief that was rising in his chest at this very moment?

"Thank you," he murmured, and it was very quiet for a long time, until a scream broke the silence.

"Where is Sakura?" Shizune burst into the room frantically, her dark eyes widened in fear and anxiety. "Where the _hell_ is she?"

"She's in there," the Rokudaime answered, looking up in alarm. "You aren't thinking of healing her, are you? You were just on duty with Lee and Shikamaru."

Shizune turned on him with fire in her eyes. "Of course I'm going to heal her! Half the medics working on her are still apprentices, they don't know what they're doing! The only person left in Konohagakure with more medical knowledge than myself is the one that's being operated on! So, if you'll excuse me, _Hokage-sama_, I'm going in there and healing her." She pushed open the door and ran inside, screaming instructions and questions and grabbing a clipboard from the latch of the door.

Naruto sighed and put his head back into his hands.

"Was it Uchiha, really?" Sai asked awkwardly, playing with an ink brush.

Neji gave a half-shrug. "There's no way of knowing. Someone might have the Sharingan that we don't know of. But that's the only logical answer."

"I've been sending out teams for information on Sasuke," Naruto said dully, his voice muffled with his tears and his hands. "I haven't gotten anything back, yet, but when I do I'll tell you. There's a chance he still might be out there."

"A chance," TenTen said hoarsely.

"Yes, a chance," Sai repeated. "There are always chances."

_Damn them and their hope_, Neji thought with a vicious brutality that surprised himself. _How can there be anything good out of this? There's a 'chance' that Sakura will live. There's a 'chance' that it wasn't Uchiha Sasuke. I don't want chances-- I want guarantees. Is that too much to ask for?_

The next wave of people to walk through the door, five minutes after Shizune, were Kakashi, Ino, and Chouji, the elder one's one visible eye filled with fear. "Is she all right?"

No answer.

The silver-haired ninja went over to his once-student's chair and shook Naruto's shoulders, completely disregarding the fact he was Hokage. "Naruto, _is she all right_?"

"Nobody knows," he answered quietly.

Neji was struck, for once, with the knowledge that he was not the only one who cared so much for Sakura he'd rather commit seppuku than see her die. A feeling of embarrassment and self-loathing swirled inside his chest at his selfishness… how could he possibly think that Kakashi, Naruto, Sai-- any of them, really-- could love Sakura any less than he did? As her brothers, her father figure… they were no doubt feeling just as much pain as he was right now. Maybe even more.

"And Shikamaru, is he okay?" Chouji asked, an arm around Ino's trembling body.

"He'll be fine, he was just knocked out," TenTen replied.

The two teammates let out a breath of relief and sank into chairs, and Kakashi did the same… all seven of them waited for the next hour with bated breath. TenTen, Sai, and Neji's clothing were still blood-and-dirt stained, marks of the battle.

After what seemed like an eternity, Shizune opened the door, her face cast to the ground.

Neji sat straighter in his seat. "How are they?"

"Lee-san and Shikamaru will make a full recovery," Shizune answered quietly, shutting the door behind her. "Lee-san was halfway healed by Sakura, anyway, and Shikamaru was merely unconscious."

"And Sakura?" Naruto asked, his voice full of fear… it was easy to tell he dreaded the answer, dreaded the horrors Shizune's reply could give him.

The black-haired medic crumpled into a chair next to Kakashi. "It's hard to tell," she answered hesitantly. "Her body is doing something strange."

"Strange, how?" Kakashi asked.

Shizune frowned. "It's like she's using Creation: Rebirth… but she can't, she's not asleep. She's… she's in a coma," she added quietly, wincing as the entire room stiffened in horror, "…but at the same time, her cells are regenerating, and the blue diamond on her shoulder is glowing. She has a red aura around her. It's obviously Creation: Rebirth, but we're not sure how she's doing it."

Neji suddenly stood. "She started it right after she got hit," he said quickly.

Sai looked at him. "How do you know?"

"I… I was holding her, and I saw something glow red on her shoulder. It was hectic, I thought it was blood." His glance flickered up to Shizune. "If she started it while she was conscious, doesn't that mean--"

Shizune's smile was delighted, bordering on ecstatic… her eyes glimmered with barely-contained excitement. "If she started Creation: Rebirth when she was awake, she'll most definitely heal herself!"

"And the coma?" Naruto voiced his last concern, not daring to let the hope he felt leak through his voice.

"It'll end when the healing is complete," Shizune practically squealed. "Two days, at the most… it'll take longer if she's unconscious."

TenTen leapt to her feet, laughing and crying in relief, and so did the rest of the room. Ino and TenTen hugged, Chouji and Shizune were grinning and laughing with each other, and Sai, Naruto, and Kakashi were simply looking at each other with smiles that looked like they would slice their faces in half.

Only Neji felt alone in the crowd, as if the upsurge of emotion in him wasn't to be shared with anyone else. It was amazing… it couldn't be true… Sakura had saved herself while saving all of them at the same time.

She was a genius, she was strong, she was his Sakura…

and she would live…!

Neji decided right then, at that instant, that he would be there the moment she woke.

She was alive.

Sakura was going to _live_.

Neji sank weakly into a seat, staring at his hands as the rest of the room rejoiced, laughing, talking, smiling with uninhibited glee-- and he smiled, really smiled, a warm and foolish smile he felt spreading over his face.

Fucking _hell_, yes, she was going to live!

---

Author's Note: WE ARE ALMOST DONE. Seriously, only one more chapter before _Nascence_ is over. It's been fun, guys, really… my first mystery didn't turn out too damn bad, I think. Today was a battle day, and though I'm not sure it was my best… oh, well. Next chapter will be PURE FLUFF. So hold onto your hats.


	12. Silken Whispers, or: Denouement

**Nascence**

---

_XII: Silken Whispers_

---

They sat in the shade, leaning against the broad, strong trunk of the old oak tree at the edge of the clearing at the beginning of the forest. In the valley below, they watched children play, screaming and laughing; they watched couples like themselves walk hand-in-hand or enjoy a picnic bento in the sunlight; they watched the wind tickle the leaves of the trees, rustling silken whispers and promises down to the depths of the earth.

Sakura laid between his legs, his knees creating a barrier for her so she wouldn't fall in her weakened state. She leaned on the broad expanse of his chest, her arms up and playing with his hair, a liberty he had recently started to allow. Not that she would ever admit he had better hair than she, but the way it caressed her fingers as she combed it, twirled it, even braided it-- it sent shivers down her spine, the touch of his _fingers_ was so like that…

Neji gently pulled her hands from his hair and held them in his own, gazing at her with a small smile on his face. "How are you feeling?"

The green-eyed girl sighed. "You've asked me that five times today, Neji," she said with a slightly nervous giggle. "I'm fine. It only hurts when I run or spar or something. Shizune did a marvelous job."

"So did you, starting the Creation: Rebirth jutsu before you blacked out." He tilted his head to touch his lips to her forehead. "You're fairly brilliant, Haruno."

"Not really," she protested with a blush. "Shizune will kill me for coming out here after only two hours of being awake."

"Screw Shizune," he said calmly, and she laughed. But he seemed more serious when he spoke again. "Sakura… I'd like you to meet my uncle."

"The scary one?"

He hid a smile. "Yes, the scary one."

"Why?"

"Well, if I'm in love with you and going to marry you someday, you might as well get a head start on defending yourself to him." He spoke slowly but with determination, as if he wanted to get the words out quickly before he could take them back. As if he was scared.

He _was_ scared… and so was Sakura.

She giggled anxiously once again and tilted her face to him. "You're… Neji, if you're joking I'm going to throw you into that group of kids like a bowling ball."

"I rarely joke, Sakura."

_No shit_. Sakura's eyes opened wide, and the sharp intake of breath she took caused her wound to slice her body with white-hot pain. She breathed more evenly and blinked. "You're serious. You're serious?" she asked in awe.

He gently let go of her hands and turned her body so she could see his lavender-white eyes, illuminated by the sun, piercing through her body and soul like the sweetest of knives. He nodded. "I'm serious."

"Well, I'll be damned, Neji, so you're a romantic after all!"

The two shinobi under the tree turned their heads sharply to see Naruto grinning, his hands on his hips, Sai behind him with a satisfied smile. "Hyuuga," the ink-artist began, "we have a few rules to lay down if you're going to start dating Ugly over here."

Ugly? Neji glanced at Sakura in amusement, and she silenced the oncoming question with a sharp glare that she soon turned to her two teammates. "You're not going to interrogate him again, are you? Because he told me about the first time, and you did the same thing when I went out with Kiba!"

"You went out with Kiba?" Neji repeated, a tinge of anger in his voice.

"Not for long," Naruto said with a self-satisfied grin. Neji couldn't help but inwardly thank him.

Sakura scowled, but leaned against Neji's chest again, and gestured for her two brothers to get on with it.

Sai smiled his usual fake smile. "Rule Number One. Do not touch her in any way we think is inappropriate."

"--at least not for the first couple of dates," Naruto said hastily when Neji raised an eyebrow. "And you have to have her permission, otherwise we disembowel you. Rule Number Two: You must treat her as an equal. And this isn't just for you to be courteous, it's because last time I said I could beat her in a spar she kicked my ass."

Sakura smirked slightly as Sai continued with the third rule. "You cannot kiss her while we're watching until you're married. If you do, we might not be able to restrain ourselves from, ah…"

"Killing you," Naruto finished firmly.

"Yes, that," Sai agreed.

Neji sighed. "Is that all?"

"Um, well… yes," Naruto said lamely, with a small shrug. "We didn't have much time to make more rules. But just keep in mind that she's injured still, so don't go doing anything… er…" He'd just caught sight of Sakura's flashing green eyes and clenched fist, and his voice trailed off.

"Not to worry," Neji said loudly, putting a hand on Sakura's shoulder. "I think I can comply with all those rules. Except, maybe, the third one. But I'm quite sure I can outrun you two."

Naruto made an ugly face. "Watch yourself, Hyuuga. It isn't too late for me to revoke my blessing."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Come on, Naruto, leave us alone."

Naruto's face softened, and he bent down to kiss her on the cheek. "Feel better, Sakura-chan. We're glad you're still here."

She smiled at him. "Me, too." Sai and Naruto were silent for a minute, looking at Sakura expectantly, and then Sakura sighed. "Fine, I'll make dinner when I get home from the hospital. Ramen."

Naruto cheered raucously, and Sai smiled his special smile. "Thank you, Sakura-chan!" and "Thanks, Hag" peppered the air as the two finally backed away, turning ever so often to smile at Sakura or glare at Neji.

The Hyuuga prodigy chuckled in his low baritone. "They're annoying."

"They are that," Sakura agreed. She smiled at him for a moment, and then, suddenly, kissed him on the cheek, her smile widening. "I can't believe you, you romantic! Prodigy boy with a thing for _me_!"

"Ah, well," he answered quietly, "it was your fault, anyway."

"My fault? Explain that."

"If you weren't so damned strong, and you didn't have those green eyes, and you weren't so proud of having your heart on your sleeve…" he trailed off slightly and stared at her until she looked down, a blush coloring her face the color of the red T-shirt Naruto had brought her when she'd woken up. Gently, he lifted her chin so that she was forced to look at him. "If you weren't so eminently _Sakura_, so crazily _desirable_, so annoyingly _everything I love_, I wouldn't have become such a 'romantic' in the first place."

She cheekily stuck her tongue out at him. "You should thank me."

"Maybe I will," he said with a roguish grin that was _very_ un-Hyuuga-like, leaning his head towards hers to steal a kiss. His uncle was most likely having a fit of inexplicable twitches right now.

"SAKURA-SAN!"

Neji sighed in frustration at having his kiss interrupted two times in a row, and Sakura laughed as they turned towards this next disruption.

Lee stood in front of the couple with shining eyes and wind-ruffled hair and nice-guy pose intact, perfectly fit, with only a few scars to show that he had ever been injured. "Oh, my cherry blossom friend, I come to thank you for healing me, and I find you in the arms of my rival! Congratulations to both of you, for you are finally in the full spring of youth!"

Neji rolled his eyes with a groan, but Sakura grinned at Lee. "Thanks," she said, "but you might want to say the same thing to your girlfriend, she's coming up the hill."

TenTen ran to them. "Hey, Lee," she said lovingly, and then turned to Sakura. "Shizune's on the warpath and on the way here, you better leave!"

Sakura turned to Neji, who looked extremely angered, and smirked. She turned his face to hers with her hand and wrapped her other arm around his neck.

"Screw Shizune."

As they kissed, everything else disappeared-- Lee's shouts of 'youth!' 'glory!' and 'love!'; the children laughing and playing; TenTen's sweet and drawn-out 'awwwww'… there was only the wind rushing in their ears and the thrum of their heartbeats and the rush of the earth turning beneath them… only the delicious feeling of their bodies joined together, safe and dangerous and the wrong fit and wonderful all at the same time.

In those seconds, they found out things that would last a lifetime-- Neji found he rather liked it when she let out a sort of purr when he ran his tongue over her lower lip, and that he never seemed to get enough of touching her face, her hair, her lower back… Sakura found that Neji truly loved the way she ran her thumbs down the line of his shoulder blades, and that the heady and feather-light heat that was rising in her chest wasn't in the least uncomfortable.

And when they separated, with Shizune rounding the crest of the hill spitting curses and threats and Lee and TenTen replicating what they had been doing five seconds ago-- when they separated and looked at each other with blushes staining their cheeks and sparkling eyes and quickened breaths, they found what they'd been searching for, living for… _fighting_ for.

And suddenly, to Sakura, the prospect of facing Neji's uncle wasn't that bad, after all.

---

_Nascence is everything beautiful and real and new…_

---

Author's Note: Well, yes, that was a rather short ending, definitely not my best, but I think I'm pretty happy with it. It had its fair share of fluff and humor, which I think was the right thing to tie up this rather dark story… Not to worry, guys, I will most DEFINITELY be doing another NejiSaku, be it a oneshot or a twoshot or another whole fic, but I'm going to get some oneshot drabbles out of my way first.

I'm really glad you guys liked _Nascence_. This has been my longest, most reviewed, most favorite-and-alert-ed story ever. I hope to continue to grow in my writing style, but it's been a good ride with you guys in this story. Thanks for all your compliments and support, and I'll see you next time!


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